




























































































































t 


•• 



























The Spirit of Perfect Health and Vitality 
The Dancer 

By special permission of the sculptor 
Georg J. Lober 



1 


PHYSICAL EXERCISE 


FOR 


DAILY USE 


BY 

C. WARD CRAMPTON, M.D. 

Formerly Director of the Department of Physical Education and Hygiene, New York 
Board of Education; Director of Physical Exercise, Battle Creek Sanitarium; Winner 
of Olympic Medal for Scientific Research in Physical Training; Director Exercise 
Clinic, Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital, New York City; Chairman, 
Committee on Physical Education, National Congress of Mothers and 
Parent-Teacher Associations; Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine; 
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; 

Member, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine; Formerly 
President, Physical Education Society of New York City; Vice- 
President, National Physical Education Association, etc.; 

Author of “The Pedagogy of Physical Training,” 

"The Folk Dance Book”; Editor “Crampton 
Hygiene Series,” “Hygiene of the 
Worker,” etc. 


* 


Illustrated 


i 



G.P. Putnam’s Sons 

^ewYork & London 

®)e Knickerbocker press! 

1924 





-Cn 


Copyright, 1924 
by 

C. Ward Crampton, ( M. D. 



1 


MAR 25 *24 

(V 

©C1A7776G4 




(Co J)ou! 



YOU WANT THE BEST, happiest, longest Life that may 
be granted to you 

to this end 

YOU NEED ALL THE HELP that modern Science, 
Research and Experience can give you 

but especially 

YOU NEED A COMMONSENSE WORKABLE APPLI¬ 
CATION of all this Wisdom to your own Individual life 
and problems, in a way that takes you as you are and 
helps you to become all you wish to be 

for this 

YOU NEED EXERCISE 

THIS BOOK is therefore prepared for You to give You as 
much aid as any mere book can give and withal to add to 
your Happiness while you are gaining your 100% Health. 


&>o map it he! 














* 





































FOREWORD 


TO THE PHYSICIAN 

A new field is opening for the physician. 

You are being called upon to make people’s lives 
happier, stronger and more efficient. You are the proper 
source from which the world will gain its health, happi¬ 
ness and efficiency. You will build strength. You will 
teach men, women and children how to live so that they 
will get the better things into their lives and will possess 
Good Health in Great Abundance. You are to be the 
Health Doctors, for a new point of view, that of Construc¬ 
tive Health, is beginning to sweep over the country. 

You have conquered many diseases—smallpox, the 
black plague, yellow fever and the hook worm are fading 
into history. Tuberculosis, diphtheria and malaria are fast 
giving way. You have thrown great sanitary safeguards 
around civilized communities and have made marvellous 
records in disease prevention. 

You are now called to the service of making superior 
men, capable of living 100 % lives—the development of 


VI 


Foreword 


an increasingly better race, living more fully, happily and 
efficiently, to the greater glory of God—and Man. 


To aid this purpose this book was written to you, your 
patients and health clients, to help you to prescribe 
exercise for them individually, accurately and with as 
much certainty of definite result as you expect from 
pharmaceutical and other therapy, to which exercise is a 
useful adjuvant, but not a substitute. 

This book is also designed to help your patients to 
understand your instructions and to carry them out 
enthusiastically and efficiently. 

Then again—remember that you yourself are still 
human; you should get for yourself the good things you 
give to others, especially Good Health in Great Abundance. 
The world needs your forward leadership. 


4$lap tf)te 2?oo k abb to Jfour 

3#ealtf), JMpptue&ei anh $ro*peritp 


THE SALUTATION OF THE DAWN 


* * * * 

Listen to the exhortation of the dawn! 

Look to this day! For it is life, 

The very life of life. 

In its brief course lie all the verities 
And realities of your existence. 

The Bliss of growth, 

The Glory of action, 

The Splendor of beauty, 

For yesterday is but a dream, 

And tomorrow is only a vision; 

But today well lived 

Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, 
And every tomorrow a vision of hope. 

Look well, therefore, to this day! 

Such is the salutation of the dawn. 


—From the Sanscrit . 



KEONG JONG 

GOOD HEALTH IN GREAT ABUNDANCE 

THE ANCIENT SIGN OF THE ANCIENT PEOPLE WHO HOLD THE STOREHOUSE 
OF THE WISDOM OF THE AGES, THE SYMBOL OF THE ETERNAL 
UNCHANGING SOURCES OF 

STRENGTH and SERENITY 



HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND EFFICIENCY 

The MODERN Formula of the 100% Life, the Keynote of the 
Twentieth Century—Whose Dominant 
Tones Are 


SPEED, POWER, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

One Hundred Per Cent Condition i 

The Executive—The Millionaire—How he Did it—100% Condi¬ 
tion—The 50% Man—How to Win the 100% Life—Seven 
Points. 


CHAPTER II 

What is Physical Exercise?.15 

Different Classes of Exercise—Anatomical Exercise—Stories in 
Bodies—Posture of Good Health—The Mechanics of Good 
Health—Physiological Exercise and Organic Health—Large 
Muscles are out of Date—Psychological Exercise—Effect of the 
Body on the Mind—Exercises of the Mind. 

CHAPTER III 

Morning Exercise for Daily Use . . -33 

Phra the Phoenician—How to Start—The Green Lieutenant—What 
we Want to Accomplish—Effects of the Exercises—Don’t Start 
Anything you Can’t Finish—The Night Before. 

CHAPTER IV 

Exercises. 43 

The Awakening Inspiration—Pumping (Circulation Massage)—The 
Kick-Up—Churning (Kundalani)—The Tickle Toe—The Aero¬ 
plane Exercise—The Side Rocker—Pep Hops—The Star- 
Gazer. 


CHAPTER V 

How THE Cave Man Woke Up—Exercise One . 59 

How Ab Slept and Awoke—When the Alarm Clock Rings—Results 
of the Stretch—Mechanical Effects of Muscular Contraction— 


IX 


X 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

What is in a Good Stretch—Scientific Stretch-Like Exercises— 

The Air Push—The Sky Lift. 

CHAPTER VI 

Inspiration—Exercise Two. 75 

Baby’s First Breath—Physical Basis of Breathing—Aspiration of 
Thorax—Pumping—The Circulation Tonic—Effect on the 
Lymphatics—The Vacuum Cleaner—Diaphragmatic Exercise 
—Suggestions and Variations—Breathing Exercises—Ab¬ 
dominal Breathing—Packing—Reversed Breathing—Tests. 

CHAPTER VII 

How Many Sides has a Bed?—Exercise Three . 93 

The Kick-Up—How to do the Exercise—Results of the Kick-Up— 
Abdominal Exercises in the Horizontal Position—Additional 
Exercises—Knee Raising Triad—Sigmoid-Appendix Special— 

Leg Raising Triad—Tests of the Rectus Abdominis—Toe 
Touching—The Sit Up—The Touch Back—The “L”—The 
Cross Over—The Bicycle—Adams' Bicycle—Scissors—Double 
Scissors—Conclusion and Summary. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Massaging the Vital Organs—Exercise Four . 119 

When Buddha was a Boy—Kundalani—Effects of Organic Auto- 
Massage—The Effect on the Working Cells—What One Shake-- 
Up Did—Anti-Constipation—When to Churn—Variations— 
Pussycat—Dog Wag—Camel—The Kinking Colon. 

CHAPTER IX 

Corsets Inside and Out—Exercise Five . .139 

According to Biologists—Ptosis—As Weak as a Rabbit—Testing 
Blood Ptosis—Tickle Toe—How to do the Tickle Toe—Self- 
Made Corsets—Corsets are Splints—Value of Biological Corsets 
—Corsets Antedate the Pyramids—Value of Artificial Corsets— 

Bad Features of Corsets—Evil of the Brassiere—Woman’s 
Right to Beauty—Corset Builders. 


CONTENTS 


xi 


CHAPTER X 

In Training for Life—Exercise Six 

The Athletes—The Race of Life—“Keep thy Heart with all Dili¬ 
gence”—The Victim of Pneumonia—The Man who Won his 
Battle—How to Train the Heart—Training the Arteries—Edu¬ 
cating the Veins—Blood Ptosis—Digestion and Gastroin¬ 
testinal Tonics—Endurance—Organic Exercises—Tests. 

CHAPTER XI 

The Star-Gazer—Exercise Seven .... 

How do you Stand?— Come State ?—On What Does Good Posture 
Depend—Values of the Strong Neck—The Star-Gazer—Neck- 
aches and Headaches—Neck Flexibility Exercises—The Hen 
Peck—Restricted Rotation—Head Push—The Bridge—Stand 
on your Head—Tests of Good Posture. 

CHAPTER XII 

The Exercise Schedule ..... 

Exercise for Daily Life—Daily Morning Exercise—Daily Walk— 
The Work-Out—The Afternoon Out-of-Doors. 

CHAPTER XIII 

What Exercise Do YOU Need? . . . . 

“One Man’s Meat—”—Three Types of Men—Three Types of 
Women—Backache—Childhood—School Score Card for 
Physical Training—School Exercises. 

CHAPTER XIV 

Bathing. 

The Wake-Up Bath-Rubbing—The Test of the Bath. 

CHAPTER XV 


Self-Testing. 

Where do I Stand?—Sample Record of a Health Climber—Blanks 
for Self Record—Record of a 100% Man. 


PAGE 

165 


191 


213 


219 


251 


257 


xii 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER XVI 

PAGE 

Weight and Overweight.267 

The Day of the Fat Man—The Best Weight—After Thirty Years— 

The New Point of View—If you are too Fat—Tables of Stand¬ 
ard Weights—Tables of Penalties for Overweight. 

CHAPTER XVII 


The Physician.281 

A New Field—The Health Doctor—The Health Examination— 
Prescription of Exercise—Blanks for Prescription. 

Selected Bibliography ..... 291 

Index.295 



ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGB 

The Spirit of Perfect Health and Vitality— 

The Dancer .... Frontispiece 


By special permission of the sculptor, Georg J. Lober. 

The Awakening Inspiration 


44, 45 

Pumping (Circulation Massage) 



46, 47 

The Kick-Up. 



48, 49 

Churning (Kundalani) . 



50, 51 

The Tickle Toe .... 



. 52 

The Aeroplane Exercise 



. 53 

The Side Rocker .... 



• 54 

Pep Hops ..... 



• 55 

The Star-Gazer .... 



56, 57 

The Sky Lift .... 



. 70 

The Air Push .... 



. 70 

Pumping—Abdomen In, Chest Out 



. 86 

Pumping—Chest In, Abdomen Out 



. 87 

Reversed Breathing 



88, 89 

The Sigmoid Appendix Special 



. 102 


xiii 






XIV 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The Cross Over . 



PACK 

. 103 

The “L” .... 



. . 106 

The Touch Back . 



. . 107 

The Scissors .... 



. 114 

Learning to Churn 



. . 124 

The Camel .... 



. 125 

N-E-W-S .... 



160, 161 

The Cross Kick . 



. . 162 

The Irish Kick (Count No. i) 



. 184 

The Irish Kick (Count No. 4) 



. 185 

Good and Bad Posture 



. 194 


Courtesy of The Macmillan Co., from The Pedagogy of Physical 
Training , by C. Ward Crampton, M.D. 


Good and Bad Posture : A Physical Training 


Teacher .... 




• 195 

The Hen Peck (Exercise) 




. 198 

Restricted Rotation 




. 199 

The Three-Quarter Bridge . 




. 204 

The Back-Up 




. 205 

The Knee Stand . 




. 206 

The Head Stand . 




. 207 

The Back Wall-Test . 




. 210 

The Front Wall-Test . 




. 210 











ILLUSTRATIONS 


xv 


PAGE 

Jack Dempsey.226 

Using the Star-Gazer to Help to Correct the 
White Collar Slump.227 

Courtesy of The Popular Science Monthly . 

The Housewife as She Often Feels . . . 242 

The Housewife as She Should Look . . . 242 

Self Testing.260,261 




















































» 
















































Physical Exercise for Daily Use 


CHAPTER I 



ONE HUNDRED PER CENT CONDITION 

THE EXECUTIVE 

THE MILLIONAIRE 

HOW HE DID IT 

100% CONDITION 

THE 50% MAN 

HOW TO WIN THE 100% LIFE 

SEVEN POINTS 


I 














CHAPTER I 



ONE HUNDRED PER CENT CONDITION 
THE EXECUTIVE 

The door of my office opened suddenly. 

I was sitting quietly at my new desk just after I had 
been installed as the Director of the Department of Health 
Instruction, Exercise and Athletics for the New York 
Public Schools and was absorbed in the huge problem 
of health training for the 800,000 children and the 22,000 
teachers of the city, when my constructive reverie came 
to an abrupt stop. 

I looked up and saw one of the leaders of the educational 
system. 

He attacked at once. 

“Crampton, what’s all this about exercise? I do not 
believe in it at all. Look at me! I have never exercised 
and, what’s more, I am never going to.” 

I looked him over and saw a wonderful head, a pallid 
3 


4 


PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


face, a pair of keen eyes from which flashed a spirit of 
great power, and a pair of thin shoulders from which hung 
a narrow black coat; a superb intellectual structure upon 
a mean physical base. His aggressive, dictatorial spirit 
I knew made argument useless, so I remembered old 
advice: '‘Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him alone.” 

I did. I have no doubt that he followed his intention, 
for his vacations grew longer and longer and more fre¬ 
quent, and finally, after a long slowly-losing struggle, he 
went on his long vacation. 

He is dead. 

This man committed a crime. He had no right to die. 
He was one of New York’s most useful citizens, for he 
had developed a system of education that had brought to 
hundreds of thousands of newly arrived Americans, 
strange to our customs, the best in art, literature, music, 
and the spirit of our American social and political institu¬ 
tions. He was a pioneer in Americanization to whom the 
whole of the United States owed a great debt of gratitude, 
but when he was needed the most he was gone; not killed in 
action, but destroyed by his own stubborn refusal to obey 
the immutable laws of the Supreme Commander of all 
of the Soldiers of the Common Good. 

His 50% body destroyed a 100% mind. 

THE MILLIONAIRE 

Shortly thereafter I was invited to luncheon in the 
Bowling Green Building by one of the leading young 


ONE HUNDRED PER CENT CONDITION 5 

business philanthropists of the city for a discussion of a 
problem in social hygiene. He came in a few minutes 
late, and apologized briefly: 

“I have just come from the gymnasium. I take an 
hour between eleven and twelve three times a week for 
exercise and I find that it does me a great deal of good.” 

He was a great young man. He had to be, for he 
personally directed a business involving many hundreds 
of millions of dollars. During this last decade he has 
doubled his fortune and has given much of his time and 
his money to large health and education movements. 
At a conservative estimate he has saved over ten thousand 
lives and added to the happiness of ten million. 

He is alive! 

And, what is more, twenty years after, he has good 
health in great abundance. He has the superb promise 
of many years more for the enjoyment of his personal 
position and power and for the greater service of mankind. 
His time is worth about $1000 an hour, for his income is 
well over $2,000,000 a year. And I estimate he spends 
at least $300,000 worth of time a year in exercise! 

One of these men, in true, old-fashioned stubbornness, 
acted as if he were a disembodied spirit, his flesh a mere 
despised encumbrance. The other recognized that his 
body might seriously handicap his career and bring it to 
an untimely end, on the other hand, that it could be the 
unfailing support of a high purpose and add vigor to 
spirit as a “temple of the Holy Ghost.” 


6 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

The Executive died. The Millionaire lives. Each 
labored hard. Each carried a great load of responsibility. 
The one went gradually down into one illness after an¬ 
other while the other increased his strength and power 
and is now living a happy, full, vigorous life, well past 
middle age, with a bright prospect of a green and serene 
old age,—if he ever gets old at all! 

HOW HE DID IT 

You can do it too, for he is only one of an increasing 
number of men and women who know the difference 
between average condition and real, abounding good 
health, and, what is more, they intend to possess it. 

This difference between the ordinary condition of the 
average man—“Feeling pretty well, I thank you,” and 
the splendid, vigorous health of the man in fine condition 
—“Feeling great!” ready to tear up a mountain of work 
—there is as much difference between these two as there 
is between average health and being sick in bed with 
typhoid. In fact, ordinary average health is only half 
way between sickness and real health, real 100% vigor. 
It is only half well; for it is half way down hill toward 
disease and disability. It is not more than 50% of what 
we ought to be. 

ONE HUNDRED PER CENT CONDITION 

This is good health in great abundance; what the 
Chinese call “ Keong Jong.” The only people who cannot 


ONE HUNDRED PER CENT CONDITION 7 


attain it are those who have an incurable disease or some 
unconquerable deficiency and these are very few. 

The man in 100% condition is a happy one. Life has 
a zest, he has a keen appetite for the work that he is doing, 
he is interested in his business, his social affairs, his home, 
his projects, his golf. All his experiences have color and 
action. He is popular among his fellows; people like him 
because he likes them. He laughs a great deal and heartily 
and he makes others laugh too. He rises early and eats 
a good breakfast. His digestion is so good that he does 
not know he has a stomach. His eye is bright, his skin 
clear. He strides down the street with his head up, his 
back straight and a handshake ready in each fist. He 
may not be a Sandow but his muscles are elastic and 
strong. He can sprint for a car and catch it. He can 
climb a few flights of stairs and arrive at the top without 
gasping like a fish out of water and turning purple. He 
puts a lot into life and gets a lot out of it. He is a vigorous, 
going, get-there citizen, a regular all-round man. 

He is 100%. Why not you? 

THE FIFTY PER CENT MAN 

To the casual observer he may look like 100% and he 
may even think that he is 100%, but he is not. He lacks 
the tingle of the tissues that accompanies the fullness 
of health. In fact his various organs have little reason 
to be happy. They are doing their work more or less 
grudgingly and they feel the lack of attention that they 


8 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


should get from a careful owner. They protest. There 
is an occasional ache. A creak in the joints on a rainy 
day or in the springtime. There is constipation, and the 
50% man is one of the twenty-five million citizens of the 
United States who have the laxative habit. 

While he once may have been athletic his muscles now 
are soft. His heart is small and flutters when he has 
to run for a car. He may not be actually a grouch but he 
does not radiate sunshine. As he grows older his chest 
gets as flat as his abdomen gets round. He misses a lot in 
life. He takes most of his exercise on the bleachers or 
reading the sporting page. His will power is weak for 
he usually smokes too much and he cannot seem to hold 
down his other indulgences. 

There are many different types of the half alive, half 
dead man. There is the average good natured type, 
slack minded, who lives along without any plan of life, 
with little or no self-direction. He takes things as they 
come, without sense enough to double the good and 
dodge the bad. He may be, on the other hand, a hard, 
aggressive worker, driving along in his chosen business 
or profession, so absorbed that he “has no time” to give 
thought to himself. If he misses a smash-up at thirty, he 
gets it at forty, and if he is lucky he dies in his fifties, be¬ 
cause if he lives longer it is worse than dying. 

Another type is the moral coward,—a man successful 
enough in his business but who does not dare go to the 
health doctor for an overhauling for fear that he may 


ONE HUNDRED PER CENT CONDITION 9 


have some serious illness. He would rather live in the 
comfort of ignorance and chance vital disease and death 
than to know just where he stands and fight his way free. 
He is like the man who never takes inventory or account 
of his stock in his business for fear that he may find out 
that he is losing money. As Uncle Zeb says, “Sure! 
Ignorance is bliss, but it often gets blister!” 

To everyone is given a certain amount of youth and 
vitality and to everyone is given the chance to develop 
and preserve them. There are a thousand kinds of weak¬ 
ness, deficiencies and semi-diseases which shorten and 
darken life and keep a good man down, but there is always 
a way to live the 100% life. 

HOW TO WIN THE 100% LIFE 

Good health in great abundance: that powerful, happy 
state of tingling health is only for those who by nature or 
by cultivation possess three essential qualities: 

Common Sense 
Initiative 
Will Power 

Common Sense, —to realize that there is a kind of life 
that is better than mere existence. Merely to recognize 
facts without understanding what they mean in terms 
of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not enough: 
complete conviction is necessary. This is the beginning 
of wisdom. 


10 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


Initiative is the second essential. It means '‘get up 
and go.” It means the ability to read, study, experiment 
and find out the ways of actually possessing this great 
quality of good health in great abundance for yourself. 

Will Power, the third essential, is the quality that makes 
us do those things which may be a bit burdensome but 
will pay the great dividends of those days, months and 
years with the sunshine of success, competence and seren¬ 
ity. Don't think you can bargain or cheat. As the old 
hymn has it, “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery 
beds of ease? ’’ If you are not prepared to make a program 
and stick to it you are pretty poor stuff and you had best 
hand this book to a better man for it will do you no good. 
If you are really a winner and prepared to get out and win, 
start on the following program: 

PROGRAM 

i. Complete health and medical examination, repeated annually. 

Do you overhaul your motor annually ? You know what 
happens to the car if you don't. It costs $100 to over¬ 
haul a $2500 car. It costs $25 to overhaul a $100,000 man. 

Suppose you could never get another motor car. You 
would be exceedingly careful how you treated the one you 
have. You can get a new automobile any time you have 
the price, but you can never get a new body. Never! 

2. Work. 

Work is the great life saver and a great life maker. Too 
much work kills,—so does too little. Learn to carry your 


ONE HUNDRED PER CENT CONDITION n 


burdens snugly adjusted to the broad muscles of the back 
the way an Adirondack guide carries a seventy-pound 
pack and a canoe as well, not like the enthusiastic 
tender-foot who is quickly crippled by a poorly adjusted 
load. 

3. Rest, Relaxation and Fun. 

In these days of civilization and strain, rest is an art, 
relaxation a feat, and fun an accomplishment. One-third 
of life should be spent in sleep, another third should be 
spent in relaxation, enjoyment and entertainment, and it 
is worth while to apply as much sense and wisdom to 
these two-thirds as we do to the eight hours a day we 
spend at work. 

4. Bathing. 

“There is an impassable gulf fixed between those who 
bathe daily and those who do not” declared a college 
president. Bathing is not only for cleanliness. There are 
baths which stimulate the circulation and tone up the 
nervous system. Next to exercise, bathing is the least 
expensive kind of medicine you can take as well as the most 
pleasant. 

5. Service. 

“Pleasures may be bought brand-new, but real happi¬ 
ness can only be obtained second-hand.” When others 
have been made stronger, better and happier by our 


12 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

efforts we receive rewards which can be obtained in no 
other way. Self-seeking as a life program means early 
suicide. The policy of service spells success in personal 
affairs, in business, and in health. 

6. Diet. 

What we eat determines our constitution. The food of 
today in large part makes the man of tomorrow. A few 
simple rules based upon the latest modem science of 
food values and vitamines and the profit that comes from 
one’s own experience can greatly aid our constructive 
health purpose. The man of forty should know by ex¬ 
perience what he should and should not eat and he should 
find out by study what diet does him the most good. 

7. Exercise. 

Exercise is an essential. It is one of the ways by which 
we can achieve health and happiness and efficiency in 
greatest degree and with great certainty. Exercise has been 
so common an experience and so easily practised that there 
have arisen in all times and from all quarters many varie¬ 
ties of exercise “systems” by all kinds of people, from 
the lowest dollar seeking charlatan to the earnest scientific 
leader. 

The result has been a chaos of conflicting systems and 
contradictory opinions. The seeker after truth must be 
on his guard, for advertisements and pretensions of sys¬ 
tems may be misleading and untruthful, though for a time 


ONE HUNDRED PER CENT CONDITION 13 


popular. One who would teach the multitude must be 
unswervingly faithful that his leadership should be com¬ 
pletely and eternally good and true. 


p* 

'%X 






CHAPTER II 



WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 

DIFFERENT CLASSES OF EXERCISE 

ANATOMICAL EXERCISE 

STORIES IN BODIES 

POSTURE OF GOOD HEALTH 

THE MECHANICS OF GOOD HEALTH 

PHYSIOLOGICAL EXERCISE AND ORGANIC HEALTH 

LARGE MUSCLES ARE OUT OF DATE 

PSYCHOLOGICAL EXERCISE 

EFFECT OF THE BODY ON THE MIND 

EXERCISES OF THE MIND 


15 













CHAPTER II 



WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 

There are as many different kinds of exercise as there 
are different kinds of food, and their effects are just as 
various as are the effects of different kinds of medicine. 

Some exercises will increase the heart rate; others, 
strange to say, will actually make it slower. Some will 
increase the weight of the body; others will take weight 
off. 

Exercises will rest or excite, built up or tear down, 
depending upon what they are and how they are done. 

DIFFERENT CLASSES OF EXERCISE 

Man has three main parts: 

1. Structural Framework 

2. Internal Organs 

3. The Mind. 


18 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


Three kinds of exercise are used corresponding to these 
three parts: 

1. Anatomical 

2. Physiological 

3. Psychological. 

1. Anatomical. 

The framework of bones, ligaments and muscles, the 
anatomical structure of the body, needs exercise. This 
structure may be sturdy, straight and strong, or weak, 
crooked and lax. Exercises which make and keep the 
structure of the body straight and strong I call anatomical 
exercises. 

2. Physiological. 

The internal organs, the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and 
digestive tract and glands are the organs which conduct 
the physical life of man. They perform the processes of 
living. Their activity may be weak, irregular and im¬ 
paired, or vigorous and full of singing, vital energy. 
Exercises which stimulate the activity of the internal 
organs and make them strong I call physiological or organic 
exercises. 

3. Psychological. 

We think and feel. We have mind and emotion. 
These are much influenced by what we do. Some things 
we do are interesting, entertaining, : —they are fun: for 
instance, games, play and dancing. These are exercises 


WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 


19 


which may be more psychological than physical. But 
there is a psychological element in all exercise, and it 
must be taken into consideration. Almost all exercises are 
good fun of one kind or another, though some test the will 
and train it, others require determination and effort which 
to normal man is a quiet but very real satisfaction. All 
useful exercises can be interesting. There is no good rea¬ 
son why they should be a bore. 

Every exercise has these three elements present in 
varied proportions. 

ANATOMICAL EXERCISES 

The Structure of Health. 

Mark Twain said, “Every one ought to have a few 
bad habits so he can give them up when he gets sick. 
That will help him get well.” 

This may be why it seems that the healthy die young 
and the hardened sinners live to be a hundred—occasion¬ 
ally. This is all right unless the bad habit leaves a condi¬ 
tion which you can’t give up when you give up the habit, 
—soft muscles, round shoulders, hollow chest, crooked 
back, for instance. You can’t give these up when you get 
sick, and when you wish you could you have only a poor 
deficient body with which to fight. 

These deficiencies should not exist. They do not exist 
where there is good health in great abundance. They can 
of course be eliminated by persons in average health who 
will take the proper exercise. 


drag down 
shoulder and 
chest, and be 
a drudgery 



ANATOMICAL 

PHYSIO 

PSY 




O TO 

p cr 

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WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 


21 


At the Post Graduate Hospital many sick people who 
come to the Medical Department are referred to a special 
division for reconstructive work. Their bodies show the 
history of their neglect of exercise as clearly as if on a 
printed page. 


STORIES IN BODIES 

Here is a young man, a clerk of thirty-four years of age. 
His chest is hollow, his shoulders fallen, and his head hangs. 
His skin is muddy, he complains of indigestion, frequent 
colds, and he has a persistent pain in his right side. 

He feels down and out—and he looks it. In fact, 
‘down and out ’ is his main trouble. 

Look at him! His head is down, his chest is down, and 
his abdomen is bulging out. It is no wonder that his health 
and spirits are down too. 

He is anatomically distorted. His lungs and heart are 
cramped; the abdominal organs slump; his blood pressure 
similarly is low, and all his vital processes drag and stagnate. 



He is ready to fall an easy prey to any ambitious disease 
germs that may be about, from tuberculosis to typhoid. 


22 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


He is only half alive, and is losing ground fast. 

His main trouble is anatomical . The attraction of 
gravitation has weakened, distorted, and pulled him 
down. 

He may be suffering from any one of a dozen different 
illnesses; but he has allowed himself to become the picture 
of ill health for his posture is the posture of ill health. 

THE POSTURE OF HEALTH 

Lift up that head. Raise the chest. Straighten the 
spine. Elevate the ribs. Tighten the bulging abdomen,— 
and you have a new man. Now his heart and lungs have 
room; the liver is lifted; the intestines are no longer in a 
mess in the pelvis; the blood is drawn up to the heart 
from the stagnant vessels of the abdomen and goes cours¬ 
ing through the body. 

The man lives! 



The only change we have made is mechanical. We 
have taken a slouch and made a human being, merely 
by lifting up and replacing the parts of the body that had 
been sagging down. 


WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 23 

How is this done? By the muscles. By contracting 
certain muscles in the proper way he was raised from 
a posture of disease to a posture of health. 

Can this always be done at once in a moment? No, 
indeed. A posture of ill health soon becomes a habit. 
The body stiffens in its bad position and it takes much 
work and effort to put it back. 

Will he stay in this position if he can take it at once? 

No. Because his muscles are not strong enough to hold 
him there. 

What must he do to get back into the position of health 
and stay there? 

He must make certain muscles in the neck and around 
the trunk possess three qualities. They must be 

1. Strong 

2. Short 

3. Vital 

Exercises which will produce—make these muscles do 
the mechanical work of replacing and upholding the man’s 
body in the position of health, are anatomical exercises, 
for they are used for the purpose of producing an anatomi¬ 
cal improvement. 

THE MECHANICS OF GOOD HEALTH 

No one can have health in great abundance while he 
remains in the posture of ill health. This great gift can 
only be won through the use of such exercises as will 
put a man in position to claim it. 


24 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


There is a story of a young man who set out to win the 
grant of a great honor from a King in a far country. He 
journeyed far and had many adventures and acquitted 
himself nobly, and he came to the King to claim his 
reward. He said, “Give me the great boon I seek.” 
The King replied, “Put yourself in position to receive it, 
and I will.” 

That has been the experience of many. It will be the 
experience of multitudes, for good health in great abun¬ 
dance is “as free as the air.” Like the air, its spirit and 
vital force can be obtained only through inspiration, that 
indrawing and uplifting which comes only from the effort 
of the individual to take unto himself the great forces of 
the Universe! You must put yourself into the Posture 
of Good Health if you would win it. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL EXERCISE AND ORGANIC HEALTH 

The bodily appearance of health is not everything. 
Looks may be deceptive. A man may have the muscles 
of a Hercules, with a straight back like a drum major, 
but still lack vitality. Like the auctioneer’s second¬ 
hand clock, he may have a beautiful front, but no works 
to speak of. 

A college football hero who ten or twelve years ago 
had been selected a member of the All-American Team for 
two consecutive years came to me as a health client 
because “a friend urged it upon him, not because he 
needed it.” No indeed, he was unassumingly proud of 


WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 


25 


himself, for had he not a splendid athletic record? Had 
he not gone through the War and come out with the rank 
of major and a decoration? I put him through his 
measurements and tests, a thorough searching examina¬ 
tion. He was a splendid fellow, six feet two inches, 198 
pounds, a straight back, clear eye and clean skin,— 
a superb type of man and withal a gentleman. 

Yet I found the blood pressure index of his physical 
condition (ptosis test) only about fifty per cent. Cor¬ 
roborating this proof of deficient internal condition was a 
soft layer of ease-grown fat distributed evenly over his 
splendid frame. I sent him to a gymnasium and visited 
him at his work two days afterward. He complained 
of the “childish” exercises that I ordered. He referred 
modestly to his athletic record, he claimed to be in fine 
shape and wanted to play handball and box. 

He needed a demonstration. So I gave him a fair com¬ 
petitor and watched him play handball for five minutes. 
Then I took his pulse. His heart was throbbing wildly 
at the rate of 162 beats to the minute. He was soft inside 
as well as out. His heart and his blood circulation system 
were out of training. His organs were weak because their 
processes had become stagnant. He had a fine organic 
equipment but it was gradually going bad. There are 
at least half a million men in the United States between 
the ages of thirty and forty whose organs are going to the 
bad in just the same way, only they have not such a fine 
body to neglect. 


26 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


How can you be made strong inside? How can your 
organs be toned up, put into condition and the currents of 
life made vigorous, smooth and powerful? 

Again the answer is exercise, but exercise of a kind 
entirely different from anatomical exercise. 

For good posture we use exercises which add a special, 
direct effect upon the muscles themselves but now we 
need the effects of muscular exercise on the internal organs , 
for it is only by muscular work that we can strengthen 
the heart, lungs, stomach, liver, intestines and endocrine 
organs. Pills will not do it, neither will massage nor 
yet faith, for “faith without works is dead.” This is 
true of life as well as of religion. Exercises are needed that 
will make the organs work, and work hard! 

PHYSIOLOGICAL EXERCISES 

What happens when we use the muscles? The muscle 
contracts, it uses up oxygen and the food that is stored 
within its substance. It calls on the blood for more 
supplies. The blood vessels and the muscles while 
exercising contain from six to eight times more blood 
than the resting muscles! More blood must therefore be 
called up from the great storage places, the blood reserve 
in the veins of the abdomen. The heart must work 
harder and faster. The lungs must supply more oxygen. 
This is why muscular exercise is heart and lung exercise. 

The supply of food in the blood is soon used up. More 
must be obtained. It is found in the liver where it has 


WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 


27 


V 


been stored since the last meal and it is transmitted to the 
muscles by the blood. Muscular exercise is also liver 
exercise. 

When the supply is decreased below a certain point, 
the stomach and intestines are notified that more food is 
needed, more food, more food quick, and they then send 
word up to the brain ‘‘I am hungry!” This is the only 
way to get a real appetite £nd the only incentive the body 
has to digest a good meal. A well used stomach cannot 
have dyspepsia,— an active set of intestines cannot poison 
the body. Muscular exercise is therefore exercise of the 
gastro-intestinal tract. 

All of the ductless glands, endocrine glands as they are 
called, and the sympathetic and autonomic nervous 
systems, the telephonic connections of the organs are 
made to work by exercise for they are the executives and 
business officers of the organs (the ‘‘corporation” if you 
like). 

Muscular exercise can therefore be made organic 
exercise. In no other way can we make the organs strong 
and in no other way can we keep them strong. 

Not all exercise equally stimulates the internal organs. 
It would take a long time to make us hungry by using the 
muscles of the fingers alone, for little food is used up while 
there is a great expenditure of nerve force in making many 
small contractions. Exercises such as running and danc¬ 
ing which use the large muscle masses in the legs and hips, 
will stimulate the heart and lungs and create an appe- 


28 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


tite quickly. This is because large muscles are used and 
are used in full, deep, rhythmic contraction. 

This is the outline of the organic or physiological 
effects of exercise. These are quite different from the 
effects of exercise on posture or the effects on the mind 
and emotions, as a reading of the succeeding chapters will 
make clear and the use of the exercises will happily 
demonstrate to the seeker after good health in great abun¬ 
dance. 


LARGE MUSCLES ARE OUT OF DATE 

The prevailing idea that exercise is of importance 
primarily for the muscles is erroneous. Large muscles are 
out of date. They are good for display in the gymnasium 
or on the seashore. Those who wish good health in great 
abundance will not work for bulging biceps. They will 
follow the ways which will result in a smoothly working, 
super-efficient set of internal organs and a straight body 
with a high held head. The vital force of the body is the 
sum of the combined activities of the organs. If they 
work together strongly and in harmony, the vital force is 
like a half-heard music of a hidden orchestra that fills us 
with a sense of ease, confidence, power and elation. If 
the organs are easily strained or stagnant, elation vanishes, 
ease and power flee, pain approaches, leading a dim 
sinister train of trouble and illness. 

Good health in great abundance is the rejoicing of the 
body that is alive and full of strength. 


WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 29 

PSYCHOLOGICAL EXERCISE 
The Effects of the Body on the Mind 

Man is made not only of framework and internal 
organs. He “has a heart.” He thinks, and what is more 
important, he feels. If he has a good body in good run¬ 
ning order, the mass of sensations arising from his “sub¬ 
conscious mind” form an undercurrent of happiness. He 
is likely to greet his friends in the morning with a “Why, 
hello, old man, how goes the world this morning?” in¬ 
stead of a formal, half grumpy “G’morning, h’ware you?” 
Physical conditions have many mental effects. 

By reason of strong muscles, man holds his head high, 
he has a sense of “up and coming.” He feels superior to, 
or at least as good as, anyone else. If he holds his chest 
up he will have a sense of power. High head, high chest 
—high thoughts. 

If his heart beats smoothly and strong and the digestive 
organs are in good tone, he has a sense of well being. He 
feels “good.” The Chinese many centuries ago, while 
recognizing the fact that logic and intelligence resided 
in the head, located the soul with its feelings, emotions, 
exaltations and depressions, in the abdomen. Modern 
science reveals the great knots of nervous tissue below 
the diaphragm, the solar, semi-lunar and other plexuses 
behind the stomach, all of which goes to show that the 
authors of Keong Jong were not so far wrong. 

But there are things other than the crude influence of 
flesh on the brain. Man needs to exercise his mental 


30 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


muscles and the organs of the mind itself for the mind 
has its own structure and operations. 

EXERCISES OF THE MIND ITSELF 

The mind was made by the long struggle of the race for 
existence in forest, mountain and stream. Man had to 
run, jump, climb, throw, swim and fight. He lived a 
very keen life that rejoiced in struggle and in contest 
and his children lived to be our ancestors. Those who did 
not possess these qualities died and their children with 
them. So the minds that are handed down to us are 
filled with these racial experiences. We are trained by 
heredity to enjoy them. Therefore we go to see contests 
in speed of man, horse, automobile and aero. We enter 
into the contests of baseball, football and prize ring with 
the players and pugilists and share their fortunes. We 
enjoy even the sedentary games of skill so long as we our¬ 
selves are contesting or attached to one side or the other 
by interest. 

Exercise that has the two elements of hereditary occu¬ 
pation and of contest has psychological values that add 
strength and smoothness to life. 

Then again, there is the whole outdoors which we once 
enjoyed. These trees gave us shelter and subsistence. 
Hills, valleys, plains, where we lived and made our vari¬ 
ous fortunes. All of these are “home,” the real home of 
the human race. 

Our minds grow dull and stupid in civilized pursuits 


WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE? 


3i 


foreign to their bringing up, forced into unnatural ways 
and fed by artificial sights and scenes. We are living 
canned lives in six reels to the screech of a phonograph. 

We need contest, particularly the men of us, and we all 
need the out-of-doors. We need exercises that give us 
enjoyment and happiness for they have the stamp of 
nature’s approval. We need exercises that require 
effort, precision and accuracy to discipline the mind and 
strengthen the will and to give it a satisfaction of accom¬ 
plishment, for this is the method that nature used to 
make a superior race out of the ruck of the common 
crowd. 


CONCLUSION 


From physical sources came all light, all music and all 
beauty, although they have a spiritual being and a 
divine destiny. The seeker of good health in great abun¬ 
dance must not only make his body strong and stimulate 
its life-giving processes, he will also train his will to forti¬ 
tude and effort and open his heart and soul to the happi¬ 
ness and the rejoicing of all the experiences of health. 






CHAPTER III 



MORNING EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

PHRA THE PHOENICIAN 

HOW TO START 

THE GREEN LIEUTENANT 

WHAT WE WANT TO ACCOMPLISH 

EFFECTS OF THE EXERCISES 

DON’T START ANYTHING YOU CAN’T FINISH 

THE NIGHT BEFORE 


33 










CHAPTER III 



MORNING EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 
PHRA THE PHOENICIAN 

Phra the Phoenician was apparently killed in a bloody 
fight between his trading crew and the savage British 
aborigines, but the Princess partly revived his body by the 
magic of the Druids and changed his death into a sleep 
of half a thousand years. When Phra finally woke up 
each tissue of his body pained and ached as the blood 
flowed again through long disused arteries and veins in a 
long, agonizing return to life. 

The time of day that most of us feel ought to be left out 
entirely is the time that comes in the morning between 
waking up and getting up. Yet these moments can be 
the happiest of the day. The gradual return to con¬ 
sciousness, the sensation of renewed vitality, the awaken¬ 
ing of the tissues and their warming to vigor and power all 

35 


36 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

develop a desire to get up and go to it in the man who has 
good health in great abundance and who knows how 
to manage his own physical affairs. The morning wake-up 
can be like strains of physical music, the prelude of 
happiness to run through and underneath the work of the 
whole day as a hardly heard accompaniment to the hours 
of labor. 

The wrong exercise is a bore even when done to music. 
Not one in a hundred men will keep it up, but the right 
exercise taken at the right time in the right way carries its 
own conviction and reward. 

HOW TO START 

All systems of morning exercise hitherto presented 
assume that you are out of bed standing on the floor in 
your pyjamas with a happy smile on your face. This is a 
mistake. You are in bed, very comfortable, and intend¬ 
ing to stay there. The morning exercise should start 
where you are. It should begin just where you find your¬ 
self and gradually wake you up, little by little, each exer¬ 
cise adding power for the next one until you are up and 
going, ready for anything. 

Consider the automobile. 

Before you can roll down the street you must wake up 
the car and get it going and ready to take up its load. 
You first wake up the self-starter and after a rumble or two 
the motor catches the spark and begins to throb. You 
give the throttle a push with the foot and warm up 


MORNING EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 37 

the engine. Then you gradually let in the first speed; 
after momentum is gained, the second and then the third 
speed and you are off, carrying the load which you were 
built to carry. 

This is the way to start the human automobile on its 
daily course. 

THE GREEN LIEUTENANT 

Most men have the wrong idea about morning exercise. 
They want to do too much. 

Once when I was an observer attached to a military 
camp during the war, I came over the brow of a hill upon a 
company engaged in its daily morning “setting-up” 
exercise. It was a medical reserve corps, a group of 
physicians just called to the colors. They were getting 
their first morning exercise. A young lieutenant was up 
on a platform in front of them. He had his little orange 
colored regulation book in his hand. He was giving 
vigorous trunk and leg exercises calling for tremendous 
heart and lung activity. The men before him stuck 
gamely to their work. They were “in the army now,” 
they were prepared to be heroes and they found their task 
commencing early. They would not quit. Their faces 
became ashen as they sweated doggedly on. Here and 
there was a face with a ghastly stricken look that physi¬ 
cians recognize as circulatory exhaustion. After they had 
been given fifteen minutes of the hardest kind of work the 
young lieutenant turned the command over to the regular 


38 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


captain and stalked off the platform as if to say, “Look at 
what I have done to these fellows! Me! I am one great 
man!” 

He soon found out his mistake for it was explained to 
him thoroughly in the presence of his commanding officer 
an hour later,—but if he had been an enemy of his country 
trying to do as much damage as possible in fifteen minutes, 
he could hardly have taken a better method. 

Vigorous exercise has no place before breakfast. 

WHAT WE WANT TO ACCOMPLISH 

What can we get out of it? What purposes, what 
results? What are the best exercises we can find? 

The best answer I can give you is in the following seven 
exercises. They take the man where he is and put him 
where he wants to be, up and going. 

The first three exercises are taken in bed, the fourth 
sitting and the last three standing. 

Each exercise has its own individual purpose and effect 
upon the body and the mind. 

Each exercise prepares for the next as naturally as one 
breath follows another. A minor effect of an exercise 
becomes the major effect of the next. 

Muscular work is not emphasized. Organic health is 
desired, not large muscles. 

Circulation'and digestion, the fundamental processes, 
are stimulated and improved. 

Each exercise is the result of over a quarter of a century 


MORNING EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 39 

of study, research, practice and experiment and is the best 
that this kind of earnest effort has so far produced. Each 
exercise has passed many, many searching tests. It is the 
champion of its kind. 

The whole series of seven is the result of an endeavor to 
get the best seven exercises as a group as well as the seven 
best individual exercises. They recognize the low vitality 
of the newly awakened sleeper and build that vitality up 
to a climax at the sixth exercise and at the seventh weld 
the man into as nearly a perfect vital human being as he is 
capable of becoming. 

The schedule of exercises is given below. Each exercise 
is briefly described and pictured in the next chapter. 
Afterward each exercise is fully discussed in a separate 
chapter and its physiological action described. The great 
diversity of human needs can never be met exactly by any 
set of seven, ten or a dozen exercises. Therefore other 
exercises of the same group to which each belongs are 
presented and analyzed so that the seeker after good 
health in great abundance can make progress with the 
help of his physician or physical director and work out his 
own salvation. 


No. Name Major Effects Minor Effects 

I. The Stretch A mild preliminary stim- Leg muscles contract, back 
ulation of the whole straightens, general muscu- 
body. lar contraction, organic 

massage, aspiration of. the 
thorax, mechanical stimula¬ 
tion of the circulation. 


40 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


2. Pumping 


3. Kick-Up 


4. Churning 


Mechanical stimulation 
of the circulation by 
increasing the aspira¬ 
tion of the thorax. 


Exercise of abdominal 
muscles and getting 
out of bed properly. 

Abdominal organic mas¬ 
sage. 


Preliminary abdominal mas¬ 
sage; exercise of the dia¬ 
phragm, abdominal wall 
and intercostal muscles; 
relief of abdominal 
congestion. 

Preliminary trunk and ab¬ 
dominal exercise in a hori¬ 
zontal position; organic 
massage. 

Abdominal muscle training, 
flexibility of the spine, 
stimulation of spinal cord 
and sympathetic nervous 
system. 


5. Tickle Toe 


Trunk muscle training Abdominal massage, circu- 
for the upright posi- latory stimulation, develop- 
tion. ment of chest, neck and 

shoulder muscles. 


6. Pep Steps 


Heart training, circu- Leg muscle exercise, flat foot 
latory stimulation. insurance, general body 

stimulation and action as a 
unit. Fun. 


7. Star Gazer Good posture for the Adjustment of the muscles to 
day. Moulding the their final best position for 

man into an attitude the day’s work. Chest 

of power. raising, abdominal wall 

solidifying, complete as¬ 
sembling of body forces. 


BEFORE BEGINNING 

“Don’t start anything you can’t finish!” Daily morn¬ 
ing exercise is not an isolated event,—it is a habit. In 
order to acquire a habit it is first necessary to become 
thoroughly convinced that it is worth while. It is there¬ 
fore wise to consider the profit to be gained and the cost; 


MORNING EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 41 


to offset the gain in length of years, the zest in living, 
sense of power and the abolition of weakness, pain and 
insecurity, against the discomfort of effort in the cold grey 
dawn and the loss of a few moments of luxurious bed 
comfort. Will it pay? If so, will you do it? Don’t 
start today. Review the matter for three days. If your 
determination remains undiminished, then begin! If you 
weaken in these three days you would have weakened in 
any event and nothing is lost. 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 


Profit 
Every Day 


Cost 

Every day 


Ten minutes 
One less turn-over nap 
A few ounces of deter-^ 
mined effort 


Vim 1. 

Zest 2. 

Appetite 3. 

Less Worry 
Better sleep 

Stronger Determination 

Stabilized Outlook on Life 

Sense of Power and Well-Being 

Less Chance of High Blood Pressure 

Greater Capacity for Enjoyment of Life 

Feeling of Ability to Drive instead of Being Driven 

Longer Life and More in it 


What is the decision ? 


THE NIGHT BEFORE 

I. Study the exercises. It is no time to stop to read 
them when you should be doing them. 



42 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

2. Arrange to be awakened fifteen minutes before the 
usual time, whether by valet, maid or alarm clock, 
and make a mental picture of yourself starting the 
first exercise. 

3. Open the windows and go to sleep. 

Even if you have only two hours to sleep, remember that 
the exercise will refresh you as much as another turn-over 
nap. 




CHAPTER IV 



EXERCISES 

THE AWAKENING INSPIRATION 
PUMPING (CIRCULATION MASSAGE) 
THE KICK-UP 
CHURNING (KUNDALANI) 

THE TICKLE TOE 

THE AEROPLANE EXERCISE 

THE SIDE ROCKER 

PEP HOPS 

THE STAR GAZER 


43 



1st EXERCISE. 


DESCRIPTION 

1 . Place hands on shoulders. 

2 . Fists tight. 

3 . Take a deep breath, lift-> 
ing the chest. Push the 
head back. 

4 . Bend the body to the 
right. Stretch the left 
arm up. Right arm out 
and 

5 . S-T-R-E-T-C-H. 



6 . Twisting the body about. 

7 . Straightening out the 
arm and finally letting 
the breath go as the 
stretch comes to an 
end. 

8 . REPEAT once more 
bending to the left. 


44 









THE 

AWAKENING 

INSPIRATION 


EXERCISE 1. 



DIRECTIONS 

^his is a Natural Stretch. 

icientifically started and 
intifically reinforced, ex- 
ly what Nature would 
r e us do on waking. So 
t enjoy a good long- 
wn-out 

-R-E-E-E-T-T-C-C-H ! 

let the head way back, 
ong deep breath: feel 
t stretching impulse, 
a twist and bend, get- 
j the whole body into 
lown to the toes. 

'awn and grunt all you 
it to,—the more the 
ter. 

lest a moment, taking 
couple of comfortable 
aths, then take another 
d long stretch, twisting 
he other side. 

■ut only one more. 

'hen start the next exer- 
AT ONCE. 




45 












2 nd EXERCISE. 




PUMPING 


DOWN 


DESCRIPTION 

Lie free and easy with< 
tenseness. 

12-3-4-5-6 

First six counts: Md 
the. chest Big, pulling 1 
letting the abdomen beco:; 
hollow. 


7-8 

Seventh and eighth couni 
Make the chest small, pus 
ing down, making the abd 
men large. 

Repeat —-three times (fi- 
times) without breathin 
Then: Take three slow loi 
breaths. 

Then take another thr< 
times (five times) till yc 
have . done fifteen (twent' 
five) in all. 


46 







EXERCISE 2 . 


EXPLANATION 

P3-4-5-6 

This is a see-saw movement. 

The chest lifts while the 
domen falls. It is also a 
mping movement. When 
e chest gets big it sucks 
the abdominal wall and 
the chest goes down the 
aphragm makes the abdo- 
en bulge. 

The spine must always lie 
t on the bed. Arching 
e chest by lifting the back 
: the bed is wrong. 



DOWN 


-8 

Do not breathe while you 
■e pumping. It diminishes 
ie effect on the circulation. 

Stop after three times 
id breathe. Gradually in- 
•ease until you do five 'times 
ithout stopping. Do from 
fteen to twenty-five in all. 



47 






3 rd EXERCISE. 



Description 

Lying on the back in bed after 
pumping. 

1. Raise right knee to chest. 

KICK the bedclothes over the 
foot of the bed—one kick. 

2. Left knee to chest. 

KICK the rest of the bed¬ 
clothes over the footboard. 

3. Raise both legs up straight. 

4. Let them fall over the side of 
the bed and 

SIT UP 

and say Hello to the World! 







THE 

KICK-UP 


EXERCISE 3 



Explanation 

This is the real wake-up,— 
the proof that you are alive (and 
kicking). 

Put some energy into it. If 
you wish to kick a few more 
kicks after the air has been 
cleared of flying covers, do so— 
half a dozen is enough. 


Then give a whirl and sit up. 

You will find yourself on the side of 
the bed. 










4 th EXERCISE. 




Begin by practicing the front and back move¬ 
ment only. It is the diameter of the circle you 
eventually will make. First crumple down, 
then straighten up—keeping your head where 
it belongs and making the buckle travel at least 
six inches forward and back. Have you got it ? 

Now practice the side to side movement. 
Simply move the belt buckle to the right, 
making a bow of the body while you keep the 
head under the string. This raises the other 
hip till it almost touches the elbow. Now 
move the belt buckle back to the other side, 
bowing the body to the left. Practice till you 
get a good free movement. 


This exercise is hardest to learn and easiest to 
do. Sit down in front of a mirror. Put on a 
belt with the buckle in front, in its regular place. 
Tie a string to a bottle or a jacknife and hang it 
from the chandelier. Sit directly underneath it. 
The trick is to make a big circle with the belt 
buckle while the head keeps directly under 
the jackknife. 


50 





EXERCISE 4, 




When you have learned the circle to the right, 
ry it in the opposite direction. 

Ten times each way is good. Twenty is 
setter. 


Now you are ready to try the whole 
circular movement. Start in front belt 
buckle forward and curve to the right side 
on your way to the back. You make a 
semi-circle. 

Continue 

your way around coming forward by way of 
the left side—and you have completed your 
circle and are sitting up straight again. 
You have learned the movement. Do it 
again and again until you make large, slow, 
peifect circles without any angles or bumps 
and be especially careful to keep the head 
in place. 





51 




5th EXERCISE. 


THE TICKLE TOE 



I. Spread the feet apart 24 inches. Stretch the arms sideward just a little higher than the 
shoulders. Now swing the arms around with a sailing motion twisting the body to the 
right. See the picture of the young woman on the opposite page. She is on her way but 
will go much further. 


Twist as 
far 

as you 
can. Keep 
trunk erect. 



Keep the 
arms on 
the level. 


2. When you have gone back as far as you can, start to swing forward: twist the body to the 
left in the same way you did to the right and swing as far as you can in the opposite 
direction till the other arm is now straight back. 

You have now made two twisting swings to right and left and you are ready to swoop down 
and tickle the toe. 


52 





EXERCISE 5. 



THE AEROPLANE EXERCISE 



3. Here is where you must not go wrong. 
Get your eye on the hand that is back of 
you. That is the one. 

Swing it forward and down in a great 
circle in front of the body to the opposite 
toe (the right). 

Now you have sailed along through 
three counts and landed on the right 
big toe. Next you are going to take 
three more and get to the left one. 


SWING SWING TOUCH is the Rhythm 

1. Take the left hand from the toe and 
swing it up and back to the place it just 
came from. 

2. Sail to the right at shoulder level—way 
back with the right hand. 

3. Next—take the rear hand and swing it 
forward and down in a great circle to 
left toe. You see you did a SWING 
SWING TOUCH again. Now sail 
along for ten or twelve times. 

53 




6th EXERCISE. 


THE SIDE ROCKER 





Take two hops on the right foot just as if you were saying one! two! with the foot itself 
At the same time lift the other leg up at the side. 

Then 

Take two hops on the left foot, swinging the right leg up to the other side. Repeat, rock¬ 
ing back and forth from side to side. Twenty-four to 36 hops is enough. 

(Try it with only one hop.) 


54 



EXERCISE 6. 



PEP HOPS 


i 



Hop on the left foot 8 counts. 
Then hop left four counts 
Next hop left two counts 
Then run four counts 


12345678 

1234 

1-2 

1 


Then hop on the right foot 8 counts. 
12345678 

and hop right four counts. 

12 3 4 

and the same on the right. 

1-2 


3 

and stop on 

Finish with a flourish—once or twice is enough, 
for the hops. 


4 

Do stunts with the leg you are not using 



7 th EXERCISE. 


THE STAR GAZER 


Clasp the hands behind the head, not the 
neck, and pull the head forward on count one. 


On two head front. 



On three look up. 


On four push the head back as far as you can 
look up and try to look at the back of your neck. 



Hold this position for four more slow counts 
with the chest high. Take two good long 
breaths and repeat slowly three times and you 
have completed your morning exercise. 



56 



EXERCISE 7. 



Exercise in the uplifted position will help to 
make it permanent. Instead of merely holding the 
upward looking position for the last four counts 
of the eight, twist the head from side to side 
letting it turn in the clasped hands. 



Or, still holding the head back and facing the 
sky, bend the trunk a little from side to side four 
times to finish your eight counts. 

Feel the uplift in the head, neck, chest, back 
and throughout the whole body, and keep it 
during the day. 


57 






CHAPTER V 



HOW THE CAVE MAN WOKE UP 
EXERCISE ONE 
CONTENTS 

HOW AB SLEPT AND AWOKE 
WHEN THE ALARM CLOCK RINGS 
RESULTS OF THE STRETCH 

MECHANICAL EFFECTS OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION 

WHAT IS IN A GOOD STRETCH 

SCIENTIFIC STRETCH-LIKE EXERCISES 

THE AIR PUSH 

THE SKY LIFT 


59 



CHAPTER V 



HOW THE CAVE MAN WOKE UP 

When Ab, the chief of the Stone Hatchet Clan, crawled 
into his new cave he found it cold; fire had not yet been 
domesticated. He was weary with the eviction proceed¬ 
ings which he had conducted personally with great success 
at the expense of the previous tenant. Though he had a 
few wounds and bruises to nurse, as he looked the cave 
over, noted its spaciousness and the convenient narrow 
opening which could be securely barricaded from the 
inside, he counted it a good day’s work. He barked his 
own private call and his wives, retainers and children slid 
down from trees and other points of vantage where they 
had witnessed the battle aforementioned. 

The cave was good, but like most old-fashioned apart¬ 
ments, it had no heat, and winter had just begun. It was 
cold, but they slept huddled together and each in a position 
which made every bit of personal warmth serve its owner 
rather than the atmosphere. 

61 


62 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


Look at Ab in dignified aloofness near the door! His 
chin resting upon his updrawn knees, his arms clasping the 
lower tegs, he made himself as nearly as possible into a 
round ball, the whole front of the body in contact with the 
thighs, and the thighs in contact with each other. This is 
the racially old position of sleep. The body grew to adapt 
itself to it. 

Often our ancestors were huddled out in the rain and the 
water ran down the shoulders and forearms and dripped 
off the elbows. Thus the hair grew in a natural thatch 
to shed the water toward the elbow and from the knee, 
as perfect a mackintosh as the back of a duck. 

In the morning Ab woke up. All night long the muscles 
of his neck and back had been stretched, while the muscles 
of his chest and abdomen and the whole front part of the 
body had been shortened. The chest was cramped. 
He opened his eyes, glanced over his new home and his 
sleeping clan, lifted his head, raised his chest, took a long 
breath, stretched one arm up, curved his back, stretched 
out one huge leg, then the other and yawned a great, 
satisfactory, thunderous yawn, just as you and I would do. 
For a moment or two he settled back luxuriously, closed 
his eyes, opened them again and the impulse to stretch 
came. Another long breath, a series of contractions and 
stretches, again a huge bellow of satisfaction. He grasped 
his club, jumped to his feet—Ab was himself again. 

This is the way to wake up. Countless generations of 
our early human ancestors fell into this natural way of 


HOW THE CAVE MAN WOKE UP 


<>3 


reassembling their energies from the arms of sleep. Nature, 
the great practical scientist, taught them. She is a hard 
school mistress who teaches by the process of elimination, 
permitting only the successes to graduate and perpetuate 
their kind, to teach their children her lessons, and this is 
one of nature’s lessons. It is one of these mysterious life 
ways at which the wise men of the East marvelled but the 
wise men of the West analyze, understand and teach to 
the men who are going to read this book. 

For the wisdom which has been good for 100,000 years, 
and for reasons science has but recently revealed, we have 
taken the awakening inspiration, the natural stretch, as 
the first of our Seven Morning Exercises. It has been 
proved by the race, by nature, and by the biologist, in the 
laboratory, therefore it is good for you and you will like it. 
It is probably the only exercise that fifty million people in 
the United States take daily. If we could look into their 
homes as seven o’clock rolls across the continent, we would 
see this daily awakening. 

At the baseball game twenty thousand men will stand at 
the beginning of the seventh inning and as if on command 
yawn and stretch for exactly the same reasons that Ab and 
you and I do when we get up in the morning. 

WHEN THE ALARM CLOCK RINGS 

“ Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning! 

Oh, how I’d like to remain in bed! ” 

When the alarm clock rings lie quiet for a minute and 
then start to wake up. 


64 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


Place the hands on the shoulders, raise the chest, take 
a deep breath, push the head and elbows back, twist the 
body to the right, stretch the left arm up and stretch the 
right arm out. Give a good twist, writhe and wriggle and 
let go that good old yawn. If the windows rattle it is a 
good sign. 

Rest a moment, take a few good comfortable breaths, 
put your hands on your shoulders again and get that 
impulse! Let nature take this exercise into her own 
hands. All you have to do is to start it and make it go 
good and strong and you get the results which you need and 
which we as scientific and practical men want you to get. 

RESULTS OF THE STRETCH 

All the muscles of the body have been immobile during 
the night. They have all been kept by the vital force in a 
quiet state of constant tension. Some muscles have been 
contracted, some have been stretched, but because they 
have been quiet, all of them have become slightly stagnant. 
If there is the slightest tendency to rheumatism real stiff¬ 
ness will occur. Nothing will clean these muscles of stag¬ 
nant material so well as muscular contraction. Nothing 
will prepare them for the day’s work except exercise. So, 
therefore, Nature gives us our first morning call for the 
yawn and stretch. 

MECHANICAL EFFECTS OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION 

Now for a little science. Each muscle is composed of 
fibres laid alongside of each other. You have seen them in 


HOW THE CAVE MAN WOKE UP 65 

beef-steak or better in corned beef. Take each one of 
these little bundles apart and you will see even smaller 
fibrils. Among these fibrils run minute blood vessels, 
arteries and veins and nerves as well. When the muscle 
contracts it squeezes all the little blood vessels and it 
squeezes its own fibrils too. When it relaxes, the blood 
again runs quickly through the vessels, filling them fuller 
than before. The next contraction squeezes more blood 
out of the vessels into the veins which take the blood away. 
The next contraction permits more blood to get in until 
a working muscle, Bainbridge, the English physiologist 
states, contains eight times more blood than the muscle 
at rest. 

Muscular contraction, therefore, cleans out the muscle 
tissue, squeezing it just as we would squeeze the water out 
of a bathing suit by wringing it between the hands. 
Contraction makes more blood come into the muscle and 
increases its nutrition. The muscle is an automatic 
self-squeezing sponge. So this is what happens to all of 
the muscles of the body when we wake up properly. They 
are cleaned and tidied up for the day’s work and a fresh, 
new supply of blood is given them. 

We will have occasion to refer to this effect later. The 
seeker after good health in great abundance will remember 
the wonderful effects of muscular exercise on the muscles 
themselves, for these local effects exert powerful influences 
over the health and mechanical workings of the rest of 
the body. 


66 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


WHAT IS IN A GOOD STRETCH 

Nature is a good guide. There is none better. She has 
led the human race upward from the lowest levels of life 
to its present advanced state and if we are to go forward 
we must follow her broad path, but not too closely. While 
Nature’s ways are best for the race by and large, she is 
wasteful and sometimes permits valuable individuals to 
perish. If they were wiser they might survive and their 
wisdom with them. 

When we improve on Nature’s methods they become 
habits and she adopts them. The awakening stretch, for 
instance, is full of hints for the constructive biological 
scientist. It has a series of beneficial effects which, 
secured at the threshold of the day, make it mentally 
and physically stronger and better and fill it with a greater 
abundance of health and efficiency. 

Let us see what she is about. Analyze the stretch, pick 
it apart scientifically and then reinforce, emphasize and 
apply Nature’s hints to our purpose. Science is only 
Nature using her brains. While the stretch contracts 
a large number of muscles, it emphasizes two sets 
which are of paramount importance, the muscles of the 
neck and the muscles of the trunk. These are the most im¬ 
portant muscle groups of the whole body. Large arm 
muscles are out of date; a bulging biceps, the physical 
culturist’s joy, is of use for the ordinary man only in 
magazines, movies and when displayed to the admiring 
feminine spectators on the beach. 


HOW THE CAVE MAN WOKE UP 


67 


The neck muscles hold up the head, straighten the 
cervical spine and also the upper part of the backbone to 
which the ribs are attached. The ribs are lifted; they in 
turn expand the chest and make it more effective as an 
organ of respiration. A high head and a straight back 
makes us feel more able and worth while. Every one 
instinctively recognizes the high head as a sign of pride 
and something to be proud of to back it up. 

Nature, however, does not go far enough in her stretch. 
But we take her pattern and use it as a basis of our seven 
exercises which in effect are one diversified stretch. 

The trunk muscles , particularly those of the abdomen, 
rival the cervical muscles in importance. They form the 
abdominal wall. If they are strong the man is self- 
contained, girded with strength, a solid unit of muscle 
and bone. If they are weak, he is slack, loose and 
flabby, his vital organs unprotected and insecurely sup¬ 
ported. The foundations of life are weak. There is no 
unity. 

In our first exercise, Nature’s own stretch, these muscles 
give a preliminary contraction or two. We take the hint, 
develop the idea and introduce a vigorous exercise to get 
this result in greatest measure in Exercises 3 and 5. And 
what is more, in each exercise of the seven, these muscles 
are employed in a different way with the result that the 
seeker after good health in great abundance develops a 
powerful sheath for his vital organs as strong as flexible 
steel and as lithe as woven silk. 


68 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


Organic Massage 

In the stretch, the twisting of the body alternately 
squeezes and stretches the abdominal organs as the trunk 
is flexed and twisted. It provides a hint of natural 
massage, and massage for centuries has been a valuable 
method of stimulating organic action but particularly 
organs that are tired, lazy or that have been merely 
asleep. This is a tremendously valuable bit of the prepara¬ 
tion for the day. So important is it that a whole exercise. 
No. 4, absolutely unique in character is devoted to this 
purpose and the principle will be found woven into four 
other exercises. 

Circulation 

While Nature in her wisdom gathers in all these advan¬ 
tages, perhaps the effect she desires the most is the 
powerful stimulus given the circulation by the natural 
stretch. This result is entirely unknown to the physical 
trainer who still thinks that exercise is for the muscles 
alone, and even to the scientific world, this result is com¬ 
paratively new. It is caused by the raising of the ribs. 
This increases the size of the thorax and acts upon the 
circulation in such a way that the pools of blood which 
have collected quietly in the body reservoirs during the 
hours of the night are drawn up and thrown into the 
circulation. This effect is of tremendous value and is 
obtained in greatest measure by the use of the second 
exercise of the series which immediately follows the stretch. 


HOW THE CAVE MAN WOKE UP 


69 


Thus we get from the first exercise a contraction of the 
muscles in general, a definite emphasis on the neck and 
abdomen, a little organic massage and a preliminary 
stimulation of the circulation. 

SCIENTIFIC STRETCH-LIKE EXERCISES 

The effects of the stretch are so good in refreshing and 
straightening the body that we have sought other exercises 
that will produce the same results. In the course of many 
years of continuous study and experiment with the best 
possible exercises for the 800,000 children, young men and 
young women in the elementary, high and normal schools 
of New York City, I worked out a series of stretch-like 
exercises which have now come into general use. They 
are called ‘‘static” because a selected position is taken, 
held and emphasized while in ordinary exercise the arms, 
legs and trunk are usually moved. These Static Exercises 
are based upon the principle that a placing of the parts of 
the body in certain positions causes a psychological state 
which in turn produces a result upon other parts of the 
body. This fact can be observed constantly in daily life. 
For example, if an object is distasteful to us, our natural 
reaction is to place the palms of the hands toward it as if 
to prevent its approach, and instinctively from this 
position the head and body shrink away in an attitude 
of repulsion. This is outlined directly in the first exer¬ 
cise when the hands are bent back and the palms of 
the hands turned toward the ground and the repulsion 


70 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

from the ground is turned into an upward lift of the whole 
body. 

THE AIR PUSH 

Stand Erect. 

Bend the wrists back so the palms of the hands face 
the floor until you feel the strain in the forearms. 

Press down on the air and at the same time, 

Lift the chest, and the head— 

Stand tall. Prick up the ears. Hold this position ten 
seconds. 

Stay up in this elevated position while two deep breaths 
are taken when you allow the wrists to relax. Repeat 
three to seven times. 

The most important part of this exercise is the lift that 
the head and chest get from the feeling of the “air push” 
on the palms of the hands. The purpose of the exercise is 
to obtain the benefits of the stretch in upright position. 
Therefore one must not slump down again when the wrists 
are relaxed. This exercise is one of the best ways of 
putting men, women and children in good posture and it 
forms the key to good posture training in the schools, for 
by its use children who have bad posture and do not know 
how to stand straight can be made to stand straight and to 
feel what good posture really is. This exercise can be 
used during the day at any time when one has been sitting 
still too long. The hands can be put down on either side 
of the chair and the wrists turned back and the chest 
raised without any one else being the wiser. It is an 



THE SKY LIFT 

A Static elevation exercise which gives 
the sensation of being bodily lifted off the 
ground. As in the Air Push the wrists 
must be bent sharply. If done well it 
expands the chest, straightens the back 
and raises the internal organs. 


THE AIR PUSH 

A Static elevation exercise which lifts 
the body and unconsciously puts one into 
the attitude of good posture. It gives 
the sensation of repelling the force of 
gravity. A modern application of a 
principle which was perhaps known to the 
ancient Egyptians. 
























































































































HOW THE CAVE MAN WOKE UP 


71 


invisible exercise. It can be used also while walking, 
where it is most valuable, for walking done in a slumped 
attitude does little good. The wrists are turned back, 
palms pressed down and the effect of raising and 
straightening the whole body is produced. This 
psychological association is deeply imbedded in the history 
of the race for exactly this kind of wrist position is found on 
bas reliefs of ancient Egypt. In dreams where the 
subconscious mind more fully sways, the sensation of 
floating through the air is associated with this position 
of the hands. This principle is found in the writings of 
certain Eastern philosophers where it is given a great 
esoteric significance. It has never before been applied 
to physical training or made available for the use of the 
general public. 


THE SKY LIFT 

The second application of this same principle, also used 
in developing the second static exercise is the “Sky 
Lift.” 

Stand Erect. 

Raise the left arm straight over the head. 

Stretch up as far as possible. 

Bend the wrist, palm towards the head and keep on 
stretching upward. 

Raise the other hand, bend the wrist and push up 
the left hand still higher, as far as possible toward the 
sky. 


72 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


Hold this position for ten seconds while two deep 
breaths are taken. 

As in the “Air Push” the effectiveness of this exercise 
results from the feeling of lifting which the upward 
stretching with bent wrists produces. It is especially 
important to feel that one is standing in the uplifted 
position while the arms are being lowered. If the body is 
allowed to come down while the arms come down the effect 
is quickly lost. 

In applying these two exercises for use in schools 
and factories where they have a great usefulness, two- 
minute periods of relief exercises, the greatest care 
must be taken to hold the “uplift” position for at 
least five seconds and to utilize this time by urging 
the participants to “stand tall, lift high, stretch up, 
feel the lift of the hands, keep the wrists bent hard, 
feel the strain in the forearms,” and when the exercise 
is over the command is given 11 Stay up there and let the 
arms relax,” emphasizing vigorously the words “stay up 
there.” 

Of course it takes more than urging to make the children 
hold this good posture. It needs health, strength and 
vigor, but the first step is taken and the children know 
how it feels to stand well. 

CONCLUSION 

The stretch, our first exercise, is a gift of the ages to 
the men and women of today. It is the point of departure 



HOW THE CAVE MAN WOKE UP 


73 


for our building a series of exercises. It is full of hints for 
our science to develop and our wisdom to apply. 

Two good stretches and you are ready for Exercise No. 2. 


3 uz 
* 3 % 



* 


CHAPTER VI 



INSPIRATION 

EXERCISE TWO 

CONTENTS 

BABY’S FIRST BREATH 
PHYSICAL BASIS OF BREATHING 
ASPIRATION OF THORAX 
PUMPING 

THE CIRCULATION TONIC 
EFFECT ON THE LYMPHATICS 
THE VACUUM CLEANER 
DIAPHRAGMATIC EXERCISE 
SUGGESTIONS AND VARIATIONS 
BREATHING EXERCISES 
ABDOMINAL BREATHING 
PACKING 

REVERSED BREATHING 
TESTS 


75 



CHAPTER VI 



INSPIRATION 
BABY’S FIRST BREATH 

When the baby first sees the light of day his first 
important business is to take a deep full breath. He keeps 
on breathing all the rest of his days. The first breath is 
the eagerly looked-for sign of the real beginning of an 
independent life. It is the first in-bringing of the vital 
influences of the outside world into the life and person of 
the child. Ever afterward until the last breath is taken, 
there is an ebb and flow of the life-giving forces of the 
universe in rhythmic accord with the life-receiving and 
utilizing forces of the individual. 

Deeply ingrained in the wise philosophies of the East is 
the understanding belief that there are seven great vital 
principles in the atmosphere, each the peculiar necessity 
of a perfect life and each the gracious gift of the All-Father 
to his children. With these philosophers deep breathing 
has been developed into an inspiring ceremony akin to 
77 


78 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


worship, the indrawing of the beauty and power of the 
Infinite. With them both the physical and spiritual 
meanings of the word inspiration have one significance. 

For this reason alone the next exercise of our series is a 
scientific amplification of breathing, for as the life comes 
out of darkness for the labor of life’s day, it may well 
bring itself wholly in harmony with the universe in which 
it is to play its part. 

THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF BREATHING 

The greater the importance of any human process, 
spiritual, mental or physical, the greater the importance 
of providing a sound physical basis therefor. Breathing is 
a physical act. It is a movement of the body that makes 
the air come into the chest. Strangely, the air cannot 
be forced into the lungs; it can only be invited in. The 
raising of the chest wall and the pulling down of the dia¬ 
phragm merely serve to create a partial vacuum which the 
air rushes in to satisfy. If there is any obstruction in the 
nose, pharynx or throat from adenoids or other disease 
the air finds it difficult to enter and the body is unsatisfied. 
If there is no obstruction the air vesicles in the lungs ex¬ 
pand until the chest falls again and the air returns once 
more to its source. 

THE ASPIRATION OF THE THORAX 

When the chest cavity is enlarged and the suction 
effect is created the pull of the vacuum is exerted not only 


INSPIRATION 


79 


upon the air but also in a most important way upon the 
blood vessels that enter the chest. The heart is of course 
located between the lungs. It has great veins running to 
it from the neck from above and through the diaphragm 
from below. When the chest enlarges, the suction of the 
chest makes the blood in these veins run more rapidly from 
the head and abdomen, into the heart. The heart in turn 
pumps this greater supply of blood into the lungs where it 
meets at once the fresh supply of new air. In this way 
the lungs are filled with both air and blood and when the 
breath goes out the blood goes out faster too. Thus the 
chest acts as a blood pump as well as an air pump. It is 
continually, in sure, slow cadence, sucking the blood 
into itself and urging it on forward through the arteries. 

This can easily be observed in the rise and fall of blood 
pressure in the arteries of the arm. It is lowest as the 
chest wall rises and retards the output of the heart and 
highest during the time when the chest is beginning its 
contraction. The blood pressure rises as the chest is 
being emptied. 

Now it is beginning to be more clear why a deep long 
breath is taken when Nature wants to wake us up. It 
will be clearer still when we realize that the blood that is 
sucked into the chest comes from the abdominal cavity 
as well as the lower limbs. In the abdominal cavity 
surrounding the intestines there is a set of veins which are 
very elastic and capacious. They are called the splanch¬ 
nic veins and their capacity is so great that the physiol- 


8 o PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


ogist calls them “The Splanchnic Pool.” This pool is 
where the blood sleeps. When we wake up in the morning 
and prepare for the day’s work one of our first phys¬ 
iological duties is to call the blood from its sleeping place 
and put it to work circulating throughout the body, and 
to do this we have devised an exercise which, patterned 
after the natural form of breathing, reinforces and ampli¬ 
fies to the greatest degree its circulation-awakening 
effect. 

PUMPING 

This is the second exercise. It is called “Pumping,” 
because it literally sucks the blood out of the splanchnic 
pool, the resting place of the blood, and drives it into the 
circulation. As we have seen ordinary breathing will 
do this somewhat. Certain types of forced breathing 
will do it more, but pumping does it better than any other 
form of exercise or breathing that we can discover or 
devise. 

This exercise consists in lifting the chest wall and 
making the chest cavity as big as possible. Ordinarily 
this would result in the air rushing in, but in this exercise 
we prevent this by closing the mouth. This, therefore, 
doubles the pulling effect of the chest upon the blood 
and serves to drain the splanchnic pool much more rapidly 
and completely than does mere breathing. The dia¬ 
phragm, instead of being pulled down as in ordinary 
breathing, is actually sucked up and the abdomen becomes 


INSPIRATION 


81 


hollow as the chest is raised. All the contents of the 
abdomen are pulled by the diaphragm up toward the chest. 

During the time that the upward “chest big” position 
is held, this great suction which is called the aspiration of 
the thorax , is taking place. * This is the reason why the 
chest big ’’ position is held for six counts out of eight. It 
is because this position gives us the main effect of the 
exercise. 

THE CIRCULATION TONIC 

This is the simplest tonic that can be given to the heart 
and circulation. Ordinary exercise such as running will 
stimulate the heart and by increased respiration and 
muscular work it will squeeze the blood out of the ab¬ 
dominal pool. The circulation is stimulated but at the 
expense of considerable muscular labor and other organic 
work. Sometimes this stimulation of the whole body 
is desirable but, particularly when we are weak from 
illness or merely unawakened from a night’s rest and still 
lying in bed, it is inappropriate. Pumping, therefore, 
is an inexpensive and effective circulation tonic costing 
little effort and producing the great effect of awaking the 
circulation and starting the day on a full head of steam. 

Effect on the Lymphatic Circulation 

Not only does the aspiration of the thorax stimulate 
circulation of the blood,—it stimulates the circulation of 
the lymph as well. The great lymph channels come from 


82 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


the abdomen and pour into the circulation at the root of 
the neck. The suction of the chest literally pulls the 
lymph from all of the multitude of channels throughout 
the abdominal organs up into the chest and into the 
circulation. This is a kind of house-cleaning, an excellent 
thing with which to start the day, as any good housewife 
will agree. 


THE VACUUM CLEANER 

When the housekeeper wishes to get her house neat and 
clean she buys a vacuum sweeper which works on the same 
principle as the suction apparatus of the chest. If she 
can afford it she will buy one of the vacuum sweepers that 
not only suck up the dust but, by means of a special 
device, beat the fabric to be cleaned with a multitude 
of tiny little beatings. This is very much what pumping 
does to the abdominal organs. The suction takes place 
when the chest is made big. All the abdominal organs 
feel the pull and the suction, the liver and stomach rise 
with the diaphragm from two to four inches, and all the 
intestines that are not fixed follow suit. The rectum, 
uterus and bladder also feel the pull during the first six 
counts of the eight. On the next two counts, seven and 
eight, the chest is contracted and the abdomen expanded. 
This reverses the whole procedure, the diaphragm is 
contracted and it squeezes all the abdominal contents as 
hard as it can, bulging out the abdominal wall. This 
compresses each individual organ, a great change from 


INSPIRATION 


83 


the previous suction. In this way each part of the vital 
machinery of the body is given a massage treatment, 
alternately squeezing and suction. It is a perfection of 
method for cleansing, stimulating and awakening. It is 
the greatest, most effective and simplest tonic that can be 
given to the body. 

In addition to the push and pull effect of the suction and 
squeezing of the exercise, the organs are jostled against 
each other and are stimulated as if by the hand of a 
masseur. This effect is of such great importance and so 
excellent for the body that a whole exercise called ‘ ‘ Churn¬ 
ing ” is later devoted to it. These two exercises, Pumping 
and Churning, are probably the most valuable exercises 
that are known to man, for although many exercises are 
necessary to keep the body in health (walking, for instance 
is one of the most valuable)—these two will come nearer 
to keeping one in health than any others. They not only 
are of tremendous value in keeping good health and 
developing it in greatest abundance but they also have a 
most beneficial effect in the cure of many diseases of the 
abdominal organs (constipation, dysmenorrhea). This is 
of course another story especially for the doctors. 

DIAPHRAGMATIC EXERCISES 

The most important single muscle of the body is the 
diaphragm, a much neglected muscle. A powerful dia¬ 
phragm is worth ten pairs of biceps. This exercise is a 
direct and complete diaphragm exercise, for the bulging 


84 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


of the abdominal wall is caused by the diaphragm alone. 

The next most important muscles are those of the 
abdominal wall and neck. In addition to the splendid 
effect of pumping on the circulation and abdominal organs 
hf has the added merit of strengthening and toning the 
abdominal wall. The muscles of the abdominal wall, 
however, are so important that certain of the succeeding 
exercises will be devoted almost entirely to their 
development. 

This exercise, it will be noted, is almost unique in 
having its primary effect upon the internal organs and 
upon the circulation. By the use of a few muscles in a 
mild way, great effects upon the circulation and vital 
organs are obtained with a small expenditure of energy. 
This is one of the exercises which is good for everyone 
in normal health every day. It refutes the pernicious 
fad that is creeping into some pedagogical circles which 
urges the use of “natural exercises” only. Houses are 
better than caves, automobiles and aeroplanes are an 
improvement on running as a means of transportation. 
Carefully devised, scientific exercises are an improvement 
upon the movements that Nature has devised for purely 
utilitarian purposes. 

SUGGESTIONS AND VARIATIONS 

The Pumping exercise consists in raising the abdomen 
and chest alternately without raising the back from the 
bed. For some people who are not accustomed to exercise 



INSPIRATION 


85 


or deep breathing it is difficult to learn. It will help the 
beginner to imagine that his chest and abdomen are a see¬ 
saw—when one comes up the other goes down. Making 
the chest big gives a sensation of pulling; making the 
abdomen big a sensation of pushing, and the idea of an 
alternate push and pull helps some beginners to get the 
correct motion. 

Sometimes placing a book on the abdominal wall and 
lifting the chest and pulling in the abdomen until one 
can no longer see it, and on the second part of the move¬ 
ment pushing the book up as high as possible, will convey 
the right idea. The beginner should pay no attention to 
the breathing until he has learned the movement, then 
he will hold the breath and stop breathing while the 
exercise is taken. At first it should be done onfy three 
times and a rest for three full breaths taken. Afterward 
this can be increased to five times. The usual dose for 
the beginner is three times repeated with rests until fifteen 
times are done. The regular dose is five times five. 

If it is desired to increase the strength of the diaphragm 
a weight can be placed on the abdomen, preferably a 
sandbag or a bag of shot. This will increase the effect 
upon the abdominal organs and help to develop the dia¬ 
phragm. It is not recommended for a beginner and should 
not be undertaken until a physician has gone over the 
abdomen to see that it will do no harm. Some enthusiasts 
use a twenty-pound sandbag on the abdomen and some 
have gone so far as to develop both the diaphragm and 


86 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


abdominal wall so that they can safely permit a full-grown 
man to balance himself on the abdomen. This is over¬ 
doing it and for most people it would be dangerous. 
Nevertheless, I would rather see these muscles developed 
than merely the muscles of the arms and legs. 

It should be remembered that the part of the exercise 
which is most effective on the circulation is the pulling up 
which emphasizes the aspiration of the thorax. Pushing 
down ordinarily should not be emphasized. Especially 
should one be cautious in pushing down too hard on an 
abdominal wall that is weak. 

This exercise can be done in different positions; in fact 
the writer first introduced it in a standing position with 
the hands on the knees. It can be used also in the knee 
chest position and on all fours, both of which have peculiar 
advantages for use in the treatment of various abdominal 
disorders under the advice of a physician. It is very like 
an exercise presented by Dr. Clelia Mosher of Leland 
Stanford University and recommended for constipation 
and dysmenorrhea. 

BREATHING EXERCISES 

There are over seventeen useful varieties of breathing 
exercises which the well equipped physical training 
teacher should know how to use. There are many other 
varieties of breathing which have been “invented” 
from time to time. The most useful of these are as 
follows: 






PUMPING 
Abdomen in, chest out. 

This is the position in which “pumping" was first 
introduced because the abdominal wall is relaxed and can 
easily be pulled in. 





PUMPING 
Chest in, abdomen out. 

The ath'ete’s strong abdominal wall wdl not permit 
bulging even when he tries to push it out. His relaxed 
position is better than most men can attain with their best 
muscular effort. 



INSPIRATION 


87 


i. Abdominal Breathing 

It is not necessary to lift the ribs at all in taking a 
moderate breath. The diaphragm which forms the 
dome-like roof of the abdomen will, when contracted, 
increase the size of the chest materially and a good breath 
can be taken. Complete breathing of course consists 
not only in lowering the diaphragm but also in raising and 
broadening the chest. Abdominal breathing should be 
complete breathing. The inspiration begins with pulling 
the diaphragm down and bulging out the abdomen. It 
continues by lifting the sides of the chest and finally the 
forward and upward chest wall. Expiration begins with 
the chest and ends with a contraction of the abdominal 
wall pressing the diaphragm upward. The diaphragm 
and the abdominal wall work in harmony with each other. 
When the diaphragm contracts the abdominal wall 
relaxes and bulges as a breath is taken in. When the 
breath is expelled it is pushed out by the contraction of 
the abdominal wall pressing on the abdominal organs 
which in turn push up the diaphragm. The diaphragm 
cannot push air out of the chest at all; it only transmits 
the push provided by the abdominal wall. 

Abdominal breathing is worth while because of the 
massage that is given to the abdominal organs. By the 
to and fro movement of the diaphragm and abdominal 
muscles it forms a useful method of abdominal massage 
which is one of the effects of Pumping, where it is obtained 
in greater degree. It also strengthens both the diaphragm 


88 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


and the abdominal muscles. This is one of the most valu¬ 
able kinds of breathing. 

2. Packing 

Packing is taking a deep breath by little steps. The 
lungs are emptied as completely as possible and then 
filled again by six to twelve sniffs, each sniff packing in a 
little more air until the chest is filled to the utmost. The 
expiration may be normal and smooth or the air can be 
sent out in little puffs. The proportion of sniffs to puffs 
should be three to two. The value of this breathing is 
mainly in the massage which is given to the chest, dia¬ 
phragm and abdominal wall. This we have seen is of very 
considerable value. Packing forms one of the most 
interesting kinds of breathing and it deserves a greater 
popularity than it has hitherto enjoyed. 

3. Reversed Breathing 

It will be recalled that the Pumping exercise increased 
the pulling effect of the chest upon the sleeping place of the 
blood in the abdomen, the great splanchnic pool, and 
exerted a far greater sucking effect on the abdominal 
organs than ordinary breathing, even in its most vigorous 
form. 

There is a peculiar form of breathing which is very 
difficult to learn but when it is well done produces a 
somewhat greater suction on the abdomen. I call it 
‘ ‘ Reversed Breathing. ” It is best learned as follows: 



An unique form of breathing, difficult to accomplish but producing a high degree of aspiration 
effect upon the abdominal organs. The position in which the lungs are filled with air despite the 






REVERSED BREATHING 


The position of complete expiration. The air has been squeezed out of the lungs 
as fully as possible at the same time the chest is raised. Note the slim waist, high chest 
and the utilization of the ancient “wrist cue” to aid elevation. 




INSPIRATION 89 

Position: Kneeling on the floor, sitting back on the 
heels with the hands on the knees. 

1. Take the breath in slowly and at the same time 
bend forward bringing the head down as close to the knees 
as possible. This is exactly opposite to the ordinary 
form of breathing where the head and chest are lifted on 
inspiration. 

2. As soon as the maximum amount of air is in the 
lungs there is a slight pause, then the head and chest are 
slowly lifted, the body is gradually raised and the breath 
is sent out between the closed teeth with a hissing sound. 
The body continues to rise, the chest to be lifted as long 
as the breath lasts. At the same time the hands are 
slowly lifted from the knees with the thumbs turned 
out and the fingers turned directly backward close to the 
side. 

This movement produces the maximum thoracic 
aspiration. It is patterned after a movement which 
has been used in all probability for many centuries by the 
philosophers of the East who sought to discipline the 
body and to make it a perfect residence for the divine 
spirit. 

CONCLUSION 

Thus there has been presented the second exercise of 
our daily series. It has been devised to gain one of the 
great beneficial effects of a natural exercise in a far greater 
measure than Nature herself could provide. It is the 


90 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


result of many years of research and experiment and is 
presented to the public here for the first time with the 
confident expectation that it will be an efficient aid to 
the seeker for good health in great abundance. 

TESTS 

MEASUREMENTS AND RATIO 

A splendid-looking man came into the office for an 
examination. He had a big chest which at first sight 
appeared strong and able. I put the tape measure around 
it and asked him to take a full breath. The abdomen 
bulged a little, the chest hardly moved. He had an 
expansion of one-half an inch and a chest of forty-four 
inches! 

It was frozen stiff. He had not used it for breathing. 
Its solidity was only a sign of deficiency. His chest was 
not an organ of respiration at all. What little breathing 
he did was accomplished by the diaphragm. 

Good vitality needs the support of a mobile chest. It 
should have an expansion equal to ten per cent of its 
girth when contracted as a minimum. Ten per cent of 
the girth expanded is all the ordinary man or woman 
needs. Take out a tape measure and run it around the 
chest just below the pectoral muscles if you are a man 
and just above the breasts if you are a woman. If your 
chest measures thirty-five inches (contracted) it should 
measure thirty-eight and a half inches expanded. If it 
measures forty inches contracted it should measure forty- 


INSPIRATION 


9i 


four inches expanded. If it doesn’t, practise the exercises 
in this chapter and use the chest for good legitimate 
breathing in vigorous exercise until you bring it up to the 
standard. 

CHEST ABDOMEN RATIO 

A weakness is shown when the abdominal organs slump 
down and bulge the abdomen outward. This usually 
pulls down the chest and makes it smaller. This occurs 
in weak, little children, weak boys and girls and in weak, 
fat men and women. 

Measure the chest as directed in the chest mobility test 
above. Then put the tape around the waist just over the 
umbilicus and pull the abdomen in, making the waist as 
small as you can, giving yourself the benefit of every 
possible advantage. The chest expanded should be 
greater than the abdomen contracted. The best pro¬ 
portion is five to four. A forty inch chest should have a 
thirty-two inch waist; forty-five inch chest, thirty-six inch 
waist. Make your own measurements and calculations 
and see to it that you keep this proportion what it 
should be. 

Of course, if you have a five to four ratio it doesn’t 
mean that you don’t let the abdomen hang loose and slump 
down when you are not watching it. It does, however, 
carry the assurance that you are able to achieve a high 
chest and a slim waist if you develop abdominal muscle 
enough to keep it there. All you have to do is to get 


92 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


mobility with the exercises of this chapter and then get 
the strength of muscle required by the use of the exercises 
which follow. 


ej u 
' 3 % 





CHAPTER VII 



V,, -. 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 

EXERCISE THREE 

CONTENTS 

THE KICK-UP 

HOW TO DO THE EXERCISE 
RESULTS OF THE KICK-UP 

ABDOMINAL EXERCISES IN THE HORIZONTAL POSITION 
ADDITIONAL EXERCISES 
KNEE RAISING TRIAD 
SIGMOID-APPENDIX SPECIAL 
LEG RAISING TRIAD 
TESTS OF THE RECTUS ABDOMINIS 
TOE TOUCHING 
THE SIT UP 
THE TOUCH BACK 
THE "L” 

THE CROSS OVER 
THE BICYCLE 
ADAMS’ BICYCLE 
SCISSORS 

DOUBLE SCISSORS 
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 


93 



CHAPTER VII 



HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 

Count them. 

The practical furniture manufacturer says two, the 
right side and the left side, and we cannot prove that he is 
entirely wrong, but like most merely practical people he 
doesn’t go far enough. 

When I was a boy and came down to breakfast all worn 
out with the daily struggle to get my teeth brushed, my 
hair parted, my shoes shined, and my big nickel watch 
wound up, with nothing but breakfast to eat, my grand¬ 
mother would say, if I showed any signs of strain in my 
usually bright, sunny disposition, “Well, boy, I guess 
you got out on the wrong side of the bed this morning.’’ 
So there are two more sides to a bed, a right side and a 
wrong side. 

This cannot be denied. I have had experience and no 
doubt you have also. Experience is a good teacher and 
what I have learned has been incorporated in this book 

95 


96 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


which might have been given the sub-title “A Practical 
Treatise on Getting Out of the Right Side of the Bed.” 

The whole success of the procedure depends upon the 
recognition of the fact that there are two more sides to the 
bed, just as sure as possibly can be. There is the warm, 
comfortable, cosy inside of the bed and the cold, un¬ 
attractive, workaday outside of the bed. The difference 
between the two is enormous. There is no comparison. 
It takes an alarm clock, two or three wifely summons, and 
the urgent prodding of necessity to drag us outside the 
bed. 

THE KICK-UP 

The “Kick-Up” method avoids all this struggle. It is 
quite unnecessary to get out of bed. All we have to do is 
to bring the outside of the bed to the inside. They 
become one and then getting up requires no effort. In 
fact, after this exercise is over getting up becomes the 
logical, attractive thing to do, for the comfortable inside 
of the bed has disappeared and we are up and in the world 
of get-busy-and-go-to-it. 

This is where the present-day systems of daily morning 
exercise fail to establish the daily habit and fade away 
even when they are accompanied by the stimulating 
strains of the phonograph. They assume that a man is 
out of bed, standing in the middle of the room in his 
pyjamas with a happy smile on his face. Far from it. He 
is right where he was all night snug and cosy inside the 
bed. In the many years of my experience I have found 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


97 


that even the best of exercises have very little effect when 
they are not done. For this reason every one of the seven 
exercises is the natural thing to do and leads naturally to 
the next in order and, frankly, the first big purpose of the 
Kick-Up is to get you up and out of bed. It’s necessary. 

HOW TO DO THE EXERCISE 

The Kick-Up can be done in four seconds or less, one for 
the right leg kick, one for the left kick, a third for lifting 
the legs together and a fourth and last second for throwing 
them over the side of the bed and letting them lift you up 
to the sitting position. 

It should be quick, snappy and decisive. To the 
experienced it is nothing to send the bedclothes flying well 
over the footboard at the first kick, half way across the 
room, leaving the left leg to kick defiantly at nothing but 
the atmosphere. (I presume you sleep alone. If not, 
a little team work is desirable.) See how far you can kick 
them. Go on kicking after you have kicked them off. 
Kick a half dozen times or more. It is a good way to get 
rid of the comfortable weight of the night’s sleep. It is a 
fighting, defiant action, a splendid thing to gird the soul 
for a vigorous go-ahead day. Life today is just as full 
of fighting as it was when the hungry dinosaurs and the 
sabre-toothed tigers were prowling around our own 
primitive lairs. Some men, like some of the lower animals 
are most dangerous when flat on their backs. Members 
of the wildcat tribe, for instance, when threatened, turn 


98 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

over on their backs and present to the enemy an array of 
teeth and four vigorous legs armed with sharp claws, each 
leg tingling with power and danger to the enemy. 

As we awake in the morning the first enemy we have to 
overcome is the slothful, comfortable encumbrance of the 
bedclothes, and our best defensive reaction to the confining 
weight of ease should be a vigorous kick which will send all 
comfortable handicaps to the wind. 

This disposes of the bedclothes. Next, raise both feet to 
the zenith, pointing the toes gracefully if you like, and let 
the legs fall over the side of the bed. (This is the “right ” 
side of the bed, of course.) Then let Nature take its 
course. As the feet strike the floor you find yourself 
sitting on the edge of the bed looking the world right 
square in the eye and ready for anything that dares to 
oppose you. 


RESULTS OF THE KICK-UP 

Of course the main purpose of this exercise is to get you 
up, and it does its task neatly and with dispatch. It has 
other values quite as important. The leg raising squeezes 
the abdominal contents and helps to reinforce the circu¬ 
latory stimulation which has been started previously by 
Pumping. The compression of the abdomen also helps 
abdominal organic massage and the psychic effect of 
kicking stimulates a feeling of aggressive attack which is a 
good frame of mind for the early hour. 

These exercises, simple as they may seem, are the sim- 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


99 


plest forms of a group of the best exercises that can pos¬ 
sibly be given for the strengthening and training of the 
muscles of the abdominal wall. 

ABDOMINAL EXERCISES IN THE HORIZONTAL POSITION 
Man naturally stands upright, but gravity is continually 
pulling him down. As a baby he crawls on the floor on all 
fours in the old biological position. As he takes his place 
as an active worker in the world he stands up straight. 
If he has strength and good vitality the head will be held 
high, the chest up, the back will be straight, and the 
abdomen flat and strong, but let age, laziness or disease 
undermine strength,—the head droops, the chest flattens, 
the abdomen bulges, and all the organs of the body—heart, 
liver, intestines, slump down and forward. The fatal 
mistake that is made by many teachers of physical train¬ 
ing is to confine their exercises to the standing position. 
In this position even exercises of the trunk have to over¬ 
come the weight of gravity. To reduce the waist line 
the abdominal contents must be lifted. Enter any 
gymnasium, athletic club, or school where these exercises 
are taken and you will see arms moving and trunks 
bending but abdomens still bulging. This is especially 
unfortunate because one of the most important principles 
in the intelligent use of exercise is as follows: “ The body 
and its various parts lend to remain in the positions in which 
they are exercised .” Abdominal exercises taken lying on 
the back have the advantage of not being required to work 


100 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


against the force of gravity, in trying to push the ab¬ 
dominal organs up into their proper places. Thus the ex¬ 
ercise loses none of its effect. 

This fact can be applied to putting on corsets when the 
abdomen is weak and bulging. We often recommend 
that they should be put on lying down. When we wish 
to develop the natural corsets of the body, the muscles of 
the abdominal wall, in most cases it is advisable to do 
many of our exercises on the back. These muscles are so 
important that the whole series is largely concerned with 
them. The seeker after good health will do well to adopt 
for his own use several of the exercises of this type and 
will extend the four seconds of the daily Kick-Up a minute 
or more. If he has an abdominal wall that is weak like 
most other people in civilized communities, he cannot do 
better than devote two or three minutes out of the four¬ 
teen hundred and forty minutes in a day to this purpose. 
The seeker after good health in great abundance will 
train the abdominal wall to unusual strength. 

Other exercises taken standing up will be used later to 
reinforce the standing up position to which man is entitled 
if he really deserves to be called a man. They will be 
considered later in Chapter IX. 

ADDITIONAL EXERCISES IN THE HORIZONTAL POSITION 
Exercise No. i. Knee Raising Triad. 

Position: Lying on the back. 

i. Raise the right knee until it touches the chest and 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


IOI 


at the same time grasp it with the hands and press 
it into the body. 

2. Stretch the leg back to its original position. 

3. Do the same with the left leg. 

4. Return left leg to position. 

5. Bring both knees to the chest together. 

6. Return legs to position. 

7. Breathe out. 

8. Breathe in. 

Repeat 4 to 16 times slowly. 

Action 

This exercise stimulates the circulation, massages the 
abdomen and strengthens the abdominal muscles, the 
rectus abdominis especially. It is a simple, elementary 
exercise and when done slowly, eight counts to five seconds, 
it does not arouse much heart action. 

Values 

This is one of the most useful exercises for every day. 
The pressure upon the abdomen by the knee and thigh 
gives a most effective abdominal massage. Fat collects 
on the abdomen as vitality ebbs away. This exercise will 
prevent the collection of fat by actual pressure, by stimu¬ 
lating the tissues to chum up the fat and by stimulating 
the internal organs to greater vitality. It is an excellent 
exercise to preserve the youthful figure because its effects 
are not only local but organic. It is an excellent exercise 
for constipation, the great bane of civilized life. The 



102 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


pressure of the thigh is exerted first upon the beginning 
of the large intestine, the caecum, located in the right 
lower comer of the abdomen. From the caecum the in¬ 
testine runs upward and for this reason the contents of the 
bowel are likely to collect at this point and constipation 
results. At the same time this lazy mass lies directly 
on top of the appendix which suffers from the pressure. 
This is one of the most fruitful causes of appendicitis. 
The thigh squeezes the contents of the caecum up into 
the colon and dislodges a menace to health. 

On the left side of the abdomen there is a similar place in 
the intestines where the contents often become lodged. 
This is the sigmoid flexure which just precedes the rectum. 
This portion of the bowel is S-shaped and is likely to 
become partially kinked, stopping the onward movement 
of the intestinal contents. The impact of the left thigh on 
the sigmoid flexure mechanically squeezes the bowel and 
stimulates its movement. 

THE SIGMOID APPENDIX SPECIAL 

The intestinal stimulation effect of this exercise can be 
increased by placing the left hand clenched into a fist over 
the lower right hand corner of the abdomen, just over 
McBumey’s point, the guide to the location of the appen¬ 
dix. When the right thigh comes up it will make the 
effect very much greater. When the left knee is raised the 
right fist should be inserted in the same manner, very 
much as a nut is put into a nutcracker. 


THE SIGMOID APPENDIX SPECIAL 

An excellent intestinal tonic. Note the position of the fist, well down in the groin pressing on the sigmoid 
flexure of the colon. This can be made more effective by pulling down the knee with the opposite hand, like 
a nut cracker. 





THE CROSS OVER (see page 92) 

An internal clothes wringer which massages the abdominal organs, twists the 
spine and relieves many a backache. 





HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


103 


At this point it is wise to take counsel of your physician. 
If the appendix has an old abscess left over from a previous 
attack this exercise might be dangerous and if in the sig¬ 
moid flexure on the other side there are old ulcerations or 
if there are any ovarian complications of an inflammatory 
nature, harm might result. Of course, if you have been 
gone over by your health doctor and he gives you a periodi¬ 
cal examination, you are safe and can go ahead and get 
great benefits that will come from a constant practice of 
Knee Raising. 

Uses 

Knee Raising can be put in the morning series. It 
should be done slowly. The whole triad, right, left and 
double, should consume from five to ten seconds. Suffi¬ 
cient time should be taken to grasp the knee and press it 
well into the body, for this is the effective element of the 
exercise. The triad should be repeated from four to six¬ 
teen times depending upon your strength and the amount 
of other similar exercise taken. This exercise is one of the 
great life-prolongers, and happy is the person who makes 
good use of it. 

LEG RAISING TRIAD 

Position: Lying on the back. 

1. Right leg up. Leg is raised straight until toes point 

to the sky. 

2. Right leg down. 


104 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

3. Left leg up. 

4. “ “ down. 

5. Both legs up. 

6. “ “ down. 

7. Breathe out. 

8. Breathe in. 

Action 

This exercise has the same effects as the Knee Raising 
Triad, but in different proportion. The muscles of the 
abdomen are called into far more vigorous play while the 
abdominal compression is very much less. 

The chief muscle used in this movement is the rectus 
abdominis, the muscle which forms the front pillar of the 
abdomen. It is attached to the breast bone above and 
to the pubis below. It is a double muscle with a right and 
left side, of curious structure because it is crossed three 
or four times in its length by tendonous bands between 
which the muscle bulges. A well developed rectus 
abdominis bulges under the skin like a double row of 
apples strung on two strings. 

This is one of the great protective muscles of the body. 
Corbett, who was the great heavy-weight champion boxer 
of the world, during his fight with Fitzsimmons left his ab¬ 
domen unguarded for a tenth of a second and at the same 
time allowed the rectus to relax. Fitzsimmons at the same 
instant planted a terrific blow which, instead of rebound¬ 
ing from taut, hard muscles, sank into the abdomen, para¬ 
lyzing the solar plexus, and Corbett was counted out. 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


105 


Putting time into the training of a good strong rectus 
abdominis is like putting money into the bank. It is 
useful against the rainy day of accident, disease and old 
age. 

Uses 

This exercise should be done slowly. A full dose would 
consist of going through a triad twenty times. A good 
deal of muscle is employed in this exercise and the stimu¬ 
lation of the heart is considerable. It should not be done 
to the point of fatigue. In fact, this exercise can easily be 
overdone. The best way is to do it five times and then 
relax for fifteen seconds and repeat. The tensing of the 
rectus abdominis when the legs are raised also pulls 
actively on the chest and impedes breathing. This fact 
should not be lost sight of. 

For this reason this exercise should not be used except in 
extreme moderation by those who have weak hearts. It is 
important to distinguish, however, between hearts that are 
really weak and hearts that are merely irritable from 
untrained nerves and general weakness. For the former 
there is danger,—for the latter this is one of the best 
possible exercises and here the health doctor can render 
valuable aid. 

TESTS OF THE RECTUS ABDOMINIS 

One of the most popular instruments in my office is the 
machine which tests the grip. Everyone wants to know 
how strong he is and tries to make the little hand climb 


io6 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


up higher and higher over the dial. A grip dynamometer 
will keep a dozen boys young or old interested for a full 
half-hour. 

But the abdominal wall is far more important than the 
flexor muscles of the forearm which make the grip. There 
are four tests of graduated severity. 

TEST NO. i. TOE TOUCHING 

Stand erect. Without bending the knees lean over and 
touch the toes. 

This is easy unless you happen to have a stiff back or a 
fat stomach. It is the most popular test of the untrained 
man. They think it is something of a feat: it is only 
child’s play and should get only 25% out of 100%. As an 
exercise it amounts to almost nothing at all and I fear this 
will be sad news to people who do it religiously twenty 
times a day and pride themselves on it. 

TEST NO. 2. THE SIT UP 

Lie on the back. Sit up and touch the toes without 
bending the knees. It is allowable to have someone hold 
the feet down or to stick them under a heavy chair or 
bedstead. 

This is beginning to be a real test. It not only requires 
some flexibility and the complete absence of a “tummy” 
for the rectus abdominis must actually lift up the whole 
weight of the upper trunk. To do this successfully 
entitles one to a rating of 50%. It is a good exercise. If 



(Rectus abdominis test No. 4) 

The fourth test of abdominal muscle strength. When you 
can do this and hold the position without a quiver for ten 
seconds with a smile on your face you possess a good strong 
abdominal wall. 


THE “L” 






THE TOUCH BACK 
(Rectus abdominis test No. 3) 

The third test of the strength of the abdominal wall and general flexibility. It 
cannot be done if there is too much fat in the way—A splendid exercise in itself. 



HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


107 


you want to make it harder put the hands behind the neck. 
Still harder, stretch them out over the head. 

TEST NO. 3. THE TOUCHBACK 

Lie flat on the back with the hands at the sides. Raise 
the legs together to the vertical and keep on going until 
they touch the floor behind the head. 

This is harder to do than Test No. 2 for it means a more 
complete contraction of the abdominal wall and a more 
complete compression of the whole trunk. Seventy-five 
per cent will be given you if you can do this. 

TEST NO. 4. THE “L" 

This test consists in making the trunk and legs form the 
two arms of an “ L.” The easiest way is to sit in an arm¬ 
chair, place the hands on the arms, lift the body until you 
are sitting on the air. Then raise the legs straight forward 
until they are perfectly horizontal and at right angles to 
the body. It is not hard to do this for a second or so but it 
requires muscle to hold the position for ten seconds, per¬ 
fectly still without a quiver and with the toes neatly 
pointed and touching. For every second you hold the 
legs thus you get 10% and ten seconds will give you 
100%. 

This is an excellent test. It should not be used as an 
exercise, however, because of the compression of the chest. 
It is used a great deal in gymnastic contests as one of the 
elements in feats of gymnastic skill and strength. In the 





io8 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


country you can practise this same exercise hanging from 
the limb of a tree and, if you really wish to do something 
difficult, raise the legs to the “L” position, then continue 
them upward until you touch the toes to the limb. Con¬ 
tinue lifting the body, sliding the legs upward until they 
cross the limb and you are up above it with the feet down, 
head up and the limb across your thighs. This is called 
“circling the bar” and anyone who can do it is beyond 
doubt in possession of an abdominal wall strong enough 
for all contingencies. 

Put yourself through these tests and see how nearly you 
can come to 100%. Any man should reach 90% or be 
ashamed of himself. Any woman should do the third test 
and reach 70% or the “L” unless she is hopelessly fat, a 
virtual invalid or over seventy years of age. These tests 
will not injure you unless you try them too hard and too 
long. 


THE CROSS OVER 

Position: Lying on the back with the arms stretched out 
at the sides at right angles to the body. 

1. Lift the right leg upward and cross it over to the 

opposite side until the toes touch the left hand. 
Try to keep the shoulders on the ground and the 
arms in exactly the same right angled position. 

2. Return foot to place. 

3. Raise left leg and touch left foot to right hand. 

4. Right foot in place. 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


109 


Action 

This exercise has a great many of the benefits of both 
Knee Raising and Leg Raising. It has abdominal com¬ 
pression and massage of the large intestine with the 
training of the muscular walls as well. Its additional 
contributions lie in the fact that it twists the trunk and 
squeezes the abdominal contents very much as the old- 
fashioned washerwoman used to wring the clothes by 
twisting them in her hands. When the right leg crosses 
all the way over to the left side the right side is squeezed and 
the left stretched. This is reversed on the next two counts. 
All of the benefits of organic massage are obtained. 

In addition there is a splendid effect on the spine. All 
of the little bones which form it are twisted on each other, 
first this way and then that, an effect which Nature tries 
to get in her everyday ordinary stretch. A prominent 
gynecologist told me the other day that he thought 180% 
of the women suffered from backache because most of them 
have backaches in two or more places. Most backaches, 
of course, have their origin outside of the spine. The 
spine itself is only the poor victim of reflected pain. While 
we cannot cure an organic condition by spinal massage, 
we can make the spine rejoice by a well executed series of 
auto-massage movements. This exercise (and others 
which will follow later) constitutes a self-applied semi-chi¬ 
ropractic treatment which has helped to take many spines 
out of a discontented state and make them happy again. 

Where the spine is attached to the pelvis there are two 


no PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


joints, the sacro-iliac joints, which frequently become 
jammed and painful. The rolling motion of the pelvis 
incidental to the exercise gives them a great deal of motion 
and stimulation. This exercise is sometimes of great use 
in conditions of this kind. 

Uses 

The Cross Over is a good exercise to put into the daily 
regimen. It forms a good combination with the Knee 
Raising for it is a milder exercise than Leg Raising. It 
helps many cases of constipation, and under a physician’s 
care it has given a great deal of relief and help in conditions 
of pelvic congestion. 

It should be done at a moderate rate, one count to each 
second with a snappy kick to each movement. It should 
be repeated from eight to sixteen times. 

THE BICYCLE 

Position: Lying on the back, knees close to chest. 
Arms at the sides, left leg extended, right leg bent. 

I. Imagine that you are riding a bicycle and make 
circles with the feet just as if you were pedalling 
upside down. Keep the knees close together and 
every time the foot comes up see that the knee 
strikes the chest. Make the circles about two 
feet in diameter. 

Values 

This is a great abdominal auto-massage. The internal 
organs are thumped and pounded every time the thigh 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


hi 


strikes the abdomen and where the exercise is really well 
done the knee should strike the chest and produce the same 
result upon the heart and lungs. This causes the greatest 
stimulation of the intestines and makes this one of the best 
exercises for constipation. At the same time the muscles 
of the abdominal wall are held in a sort of contraction and 
are exercised at the same time, the best possible way to 
make them short and taut as well as strong. 

This exercise is hard work. It is the most vigorous of 
any of the exercises hitherto described. For this reason 
those who are weak in any way should not do it except a 
very few times with frequent rests and under careful 
direction. It stimulates the circulation and forms an 
excellent physiological exercise. It will develop endur¬ 
ance but it must be remembered that in so doing it costs 
considerable effort which the body must be prepared to 
expend. 

Uses 

This exercise, if placed in the daily morning series, would 
only be used as a brief continuation of the Kick-Up. You 
may get on the bicycle and ride yourself right into a vigor¬ 
ous attack on the day’s work but six to twelve times is 
enough. Let me repeat this: six to twelve times is enough. 
The danger of an exercise which is such fun as this one lies 
in the fact that people will do it too much and unfortu¬ 
nately some physical trainers encourage them. I have 
seen weak, anaemic men bicycling for all they were worth, 


112 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


digging along as if they were actually on a bicycle and 
health and strength were just ahead and going too fast to 
be overtaken. 

Good health cannot be pursued with such strained 
intensity. Exercise does its main good by stimulating 
repair and it does this by causing occasion for repair 
by the tearing down of muscular tissue. The bicycle exer¬ 
cise is as vigorous as running and it should be used with 
discretion. It should not be used by anyone with a weak 
heart or lungs or any impairment of the circulation what¬ 
soever. Under direction it may be used from twelve to 
sixty counts at the rate of two counts to the second (the 
same rate as in walking 120 steps to the minute). 

ADAMS’ BICYCLE 

Position: Lying on the back with the feet stretched up 
on the wall pointing toward the ceiling. Hands at the 
sides. 

1. The arms are stretched along the floor to a position 

back of the head, the right leg is stretched up 
toward the ceiling and the left leg bent with the 
knee toward the chest. 

2. The arms return to the sides and the legs change 

their position, the left stretched up and the right 
knee to the chest. The feet slide up and down 
the wall. 

This exercise was first brought to my attention by 
William Curtis Adams, Director of the Adams Place, 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


ii3 

Pompton, New Jersey, where he has used it with good 
effect. The exercise differs from the ordinary bicycle 
just described in the addition of the arm movement which 
produces a widening and lifting of the chest, a very much- 
to-be-desired result. This effect on the size of the chest 
is increased in another way which makes another import¬ 
ant difference. The fact that the legs do not have to be 
held in the upward position as in the regular Bicycle, 
because they merely slide up and down the wall, relaxes 
the muscles of the abdomen and the rectus therefore does 
not pull upon the chest. It is free to expand when the 
arms are raised, yet the thighs go down, rhythmically 
compressing the abdomen. Therefore we get in this 
exercise the abdominal massage at little expense of 
abdominal muscular contraction. 

This exercise is useful for many persons for whom we 
would not care to prescribe Leg Raising or the ordinary 
Bicycle. It illustrates the fact, however, that exercises 
differ from each other in their effects and no one exercise 
is good for everything, and points the moral that they 
should be understood and used for the purpose for which 
they are designed if benefit is to be gained. 

Use 

The Adams Bicycle can be used very many more times 
and done much more rapidly than the ordinary Bicycle. 
Persons beginning their training may do it from twenty- 
four to sixty times at the rate of one hundred and twenty 


i H PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

to one hundred and fifty counts to the minute. Later it 
ran be used from a hundred to three hundred times a day. 

THE SCISSORS 

Position: Lying on the right side, the right arm 
stretched under the head, the left arm bent so the finger¬ 
tips lightly touch the floor in front of the chest. Legs 
straight. The head rests comfortably on the arm. The 
whole posture is without the slightest tension. (The 
exercise is best done on the floor on which a blanket has 
been spread. The beginner may wdsh to place a small 
pillow under the hips.) 

1. The left leg is swung forward and the right leg back. 

Both legs are kept perfectly straight, toes pointed. 

2. The action is reversed, the legs changing places. 

Action 

This exercise consists in an action very much like 
straight-legged walking, similar to the opening and closing 
of the scissors. The movement is rapid, a hundred and 
twenty to a hundred and fifty counts to the minute. The 
greatest difficulties for the beginner are in keeping the 
balance on the side, in keeping the legs straight, the knees 
stiff and in swinging the under leg far enough. It is also 
hard to make the leg swing back as much as it swings for¬ 
ward. If the exercise is properly done the impetus of the legs 
will make the body slide along the floor in the direction of 
the feet and unless the right hand holds on to something 



THE SCISSORS (Front view) 

A vigorous exercise welding the trunk into one solid flexible column. Note 
the relaxed arm used as a pillow and the one finger support for balance. 



THE SCISSORS (Rear view) 

One of the most valuable advanced exercises for women. It should be begun 
gradually and used in moderation at first, for, while it does great good, it is hard 
work. 












HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


ii5 

one will crawl by little jerks to the other end of the room. 
This is one of the signs that the exercise is done properly 
and the more marked the tendency to crawl, the more 
correct and vigorous is the action. 

Another mistake that all beginners make is in holding 
the body too tense. It should not be tense at all. At 
first, of course, there is a tendency to roll forward on the 
face or back but this will be overcome as the legs get into 
their stride. They then act the way a gyroscope stabili¬ 
zer acts on a ship and the action becomes perfectly steady. 
The fingertips may be placed on the floor in front of the body. 
At first they will be needed to keep the balance. Later, as 
skill develops, they may be raised entirely from the floor. 

Results and Values 

This exercise has very much the same effects as rapid 
walking or mild running. It employs many muscles of 
the body so vigorously that it stimulates the heart and 
lungs and calls upon the whole body for work. It is a 
physiological exercise and therefore should be used very 
little in the daily morning series. It can be used best at 
night before going to bed. It is an excellent sleep- 
producer. It is ideal for use in gymnasiums and sani¬ 
tariums where body building can be made the whole 
business of the day. 

The greatest value of this exercise lies in its building the 
trunk muscles into one solid elastic column. In running 
the effective action of the legs is only made possible 


n 6 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


because they are firmly attached to a vigorous, solid trunk. 
The legs can’t run by themselves. Running, with its 
rapid rhythmic change of strains, must have the trunk 
as a secure foundation. It must be all of one piece and 
strong. The Scissors exercise has the same action as run¬ 
ning with the effect of gravity removed. The organs do not 
have to be held up from cthe lower part of the abdomen 
and all the muscular force can be devoted to the action. 

The effect on the abdominal organs is different from 
any other exercise. They are held up in place and the 
muscles are moulded around them. Therefore the Scissors 
is of greatest effect in conditions where the abdominal 
organs have slumped,—gastroptosis, enteroptosis, pro¬ 
truding abdomens. This exercise, many women will be 
delighted to hear, is the best that has ever been devised 
for the reduction of fat on the hips. Fat is not only 
ironed away by the heavy massage through the weight 
of the body resting on the hips, but the heavy rhythmic 
action of the hip muscles themselves aids the reduction. 

Combined with Knee Raising this exercise is an ideal 
method for getting fat off the stomach. If these two 
exercises are done enough a sylph-like figure can positively 
be guaranteed and it is strange that someone has not yet 
sold this secret by mail at $10 per secret. 

Method of Use 

The Scissors, it must be remembered, is a vigorous 
exercise. The average weak-waisted woman cannot do 


HOW MANY SIDES HAS A BED? 


ii 7 

it more than six times without straining the muscles of the 
side and panting for breath. She is not strong enough 
to do the exercise a sufficient number of times to do her 
much good. The only way to get the extraordinary 
benefits of this movement is to start in at six times on each 
side and increase the number one time daily until it can 
be done fifty, sixty or a hundred times on each side. 
When this point is reached the weak woman will be weak 
no longer. 

This is one of the most valuable exercises that has ever 
been devised and no course of body training is complete 
without it. 


DOUBLE SCISSORS 

This exercise is developed from the Scissors and is even 
more vigorous and difficult. The position is the same, 
lying on the side, but the hands are clasped together over 
the head with the arms straight, making a straight line 
from the hands to the tips of the toes. 

1. The legs kept straight are moved forward together 

about us far as one leg would be moved forward 
in the Scissors. 

2 . The legs, still kept together, swing back past the 

body axis to the position that one of the legs 
would reach in the single Scissors, but they are 
both there this time and the body makes a grace¬ 
ful bow from heels to finger-tips. As the move¬ 
ment continues there is a rhythmic swing of the 
whole body forward and backward with the 


118 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


chest held high and the head resting easy between 
the arms. 

This exercise is only for the well trained body. Its 
peculiar values lie in the training of the whole body to 
become one elastic, resilient muscular unit. It has all 
the benefits of the single Scissors and more. 


CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 
Our brief, simple Kick-Up exercise, the third in our 
series of seven, has been shown to be a member of a group 
of exercises of great importance. The four seconds’ work 
will be expanded into thirty seconds or more by judicious 
selection from the horizontal abdominal exercise series. 

The exercises described are but six of several score that 
have important values. These are among the best. There 
are others equally good or better but I do not feel justified 
in describing them for general use for they should be 
practised only under trained supervision. 

The health physician who wishes to keep his patients 
well, the practitioner of the new specialty of health, will 
find great use for these while the seeker after good health 
in great abundance will make many happy discoveries of 
their effect upon his well-being and efficiency. 


*0 u 



CHAPTER VIII 





MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 
EXERCISE FOUR 
CONTENTS 

WHEN BUDDHA WAS A BOY 
KUNDALANI 

EFFECTS OF ORGANIC AUTO-MASSAGE 

THE EFFECT ON THE WORKING CELLS 

WHAT ONE SHAKE-UP DID 

ANTI-CONSTIPATION 

WHEN TO CHURN 

VARIATIONS 

PUSSYCAT 

DOG WAG 

CAMEL 

THE KINKING COLON 


119 






f 


CHAPTER VIII 


MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 
WHEN BUDDHA WAS A BOY 

Forty centuries ago when Buddha was a boy and our 
own ancestors were naked savages, the mighty in wisdom 
and learning were gathered in the serene retreats of the 
Eastern world, north, south, east and west of the eternal 
peak of Mount Everest. The upward struggle of the 
whole human race, century by century, from its early series 
of birth epochs was carefully studied and recorded. It 
was handed down in symbol, tradition and mystery. It 
was precious. It was preserved from defilement from the 
touch of ordinary people. Wisdom was the priceless 
heritage and possession of the priest clan alone. 

Of the thousands of mysteries of the East, many are 
grouped around the relation of the human body to the soul 
and its destiny. Religious thought and practice were 


121 


122 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


divided into three schools. The first turned towards the 
worship of the body. It exalted it as the throne of the 
spirit. It worshipped the marvels of its intricate actions 
and reactions. It ended often in defilement and defeat of 
the spirit, placing flesh above light and darkening the 
gleam. This tendency may be observed through each 
generation and in almost every religion down through the 
phallic worshippers of classic times to the sybaritic 
religious fads of today. 

On the other extreme, the opposite school of thought 
recognized the body as a handicap to the spirit, a burden 
which weighed it down and shackled it to sin and error. 
This priesthood, by the practice of a thousand privations, 
kept the body strictly in its place and exalted the spirit. 
Through the long turning of the ages we find a hoard of 
saintly lamas, faquirs and flagellantes valiantly crippling 
their bodies to exalt their souls. 

But truth finds its home at the golden mean. The 
school of religious thought which lies between the phallic 
worship on the one hand and human sacrifices on the other 
regards the body as the material home of the spirit. It is 
worthy of being kept clean, strong and wholesome. Its 
effect upon the spirit is regarded as the same as the effect 
that a well ordered, beautifully adorned home has upon its 
in-dwellers. 

r In ancient times, in that cradle of the human race and ali 
of its mysteries, the great Asiatic East, there developed a 
series of physical exercises which were used in the course 


MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 


123 


of the training of the priest. The body was to be brought 
under control. It was to be made subject to the will. 
The breathing was disciplined and could be reduced to two 
or three deep breaths a minute. The heart beat was also 
subordinated to the will. The movements of the muscles 
of the internal organs, the whole alimentary canal, were 
subject to control. Much of the priestly effort was 
directed toward the discipline of the body, its perfection 
as an instrument, so that it might aid the release of the 
soul from its long series of incarnations and rebirths on 
this earth and wing it forward into Nirvana, the peaceful 
serenity of heaven. 

Some of these physical exercises have from time to time 
come through the priesthood to the common people. 
They have been taught for a price. Some of those that 
are available are useless; others have turned utterly from 
their proper purpose, but there are a few which may be 
used with great benefit to mankind. 

One of these is Churning, or Kundalani, which I have 
placed as the fourth of our seven exercises, the center and 
peak of the series. It is in all probability over four thou¬ 
sand years old. It was used long before the Pharaohs 
gathered their tribute from the Nile. It has many forms; 
the best for health development as I use them are given 
below. 

The preceding exercises have been taken lying down. 
Churning is done sitting on the edge of the bed halfway 
up to the upright position. 


124 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


KUNDALANI 

Churning consists in making the middle portion of the 
body describe a circle. It is very difficult to do. It is 
comparatively easy to sit and make the head and shoulders 
describe a circle, but this is only a poor substitute with 
only a tenth of the effects of Churning. To anyone who 
has ever used a carpenter’s brace and bit to bore a hole, 
the idea of the exercise is easy to understand. The 
middle of this tool which makes a horizontal circle round 
and round is like the middle of the body; its upper part, 
the brace, is like the head which stays in one place, and 
the lower part like the hips which have only the slightest 
movement. 

The learning of this movement is the bridge over which 
the seeker for good health must pass. It will not come 
easy. It requires study and patience, but there is no 
effort that man can make in his own behalf that will bring 
greater rewards. 

LEARNING THE MOVEMENT 

Sit on a hard-bottomed chair, hands on the knees, facing 
a mirror. First you should learn the elements of the 
movement which correspond to the two diameters of the 
circle which it forms. The front and back diameter comes 
first. Make the middle of the body come forward. It is 
then in the most forward position you go through in mak¬ 
ing the circle. This will raise the head and straighten the 



LEARNING TO CHURN 

The forward position. Head up, chest up, The backward point in the circle of the 

ready to bend the body in a curve to the abdomen. Ready to make a curve to the left 

right on its way to the backward position. as the trunk comes to the forward position. 






THE CAMEL 

Churning in the old biological position, on all fours. All the organs hang 
from the spine in their original position and many of the kinks are taken out of the 
colon. 


MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 


125 


back. Next pull the middle of the body backward. It 
reaches the rearmost point on the finished circle of move¬ 
ment. The head will droop, but it should not move either 
forward or backward, right or left; its motion is only down 
and up. Drop a string with a little weight on it from the 
chandelier just over the top of the head and see if you can 
keep it strictly in line. Practise this until perfect. 

The learning of a lateral side to side diameter is harder. 
Still facing the mirror, make the body curve to the right. 
If you wear a vest, the bottom button should move from 
four to six inches to the right but the top button must 
remain strictly in its place. Come back to the center 
again and make the lowest vest button travel to the left. 
If perchance you don’t wear a vest, put on a belt with a 
buckle. Make it travel right and left while the head stays 
just where it should be, under the plumb line. 

In this movement the hips will rock from side to side. 
When you go to the right the left hip will be raised. 
When you go to the left the other hip will be raised. Dur¬ 
ing this time the shoulders remain facing the mirror and 
do not twist. 

When the two diameters have been learned, start at the 
front with the belt buckle forward as far as possible, then 
go around the circle, the buckle traveling to the right. 
Continue until it is back in the hollow of the bent-in body 
as deep as possible. Again continue and make it go to the 
left as far as possible; go on then until you come forward 
and have completed one rotation. 


126 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


This is Churning; one of the oldest exercise in the world 
and possibly the most valuable of them all. 

When you have learned the movement you should try 
continually to make the circle as large as possible. You 
should try to make it as smooth as possible. Most people 
make circles at first that are full of bumps and more like 
irregular squares than anything else. This is due to a 
lack of muscular ability or actual physical defect. When 
Churning is learned to the right it should be learned to the 
left as well. If you have trouble learning Churning 
in the sitting position try learning the variations at the end 
of this chapter. 

EFFECTS OF ORGANIC AUTO-MASSAGE 

The greatest result of this exercise is the massage of the 
internal organs which it accomplishes to a greater degree 
than any other, even the Pumping and Trunk Exercises 
which have been prescribed. Massage is a measure which 
has been employed in the cure of disease for many thou¬ 
sands of years. It has been used in India, China, and 
Japan from the dawn of history. 

Churning has valuable effects upon every part of the 
structure of the internal organs. It squeezes the blood 
from them and creates a suction which is supplied by new 
blood. This abolishes the mal-nutrition occasioned by 
sluggishness. It removes the cinders, ashes and waste of 
organic activity and brings in new, fresh, revivifying 


MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 


127 

supplies. An organ half sick from neglect takes courage 
and renews its life. 

Massage not only hurries the blood current, but it also 
quickens the current of the lymph flowing through the 
minute channels between the clusters of cells which make 
up the structure. The fibrous framework of the organ is 
stretched and squeezed and stimulated. 

THE EFFECT ON THE WORKING CELLS 

The cells which really do the special work of the organ 
are the ones which profit most by massage. The liver, 
for instance, is composed of hexagonal cells, each enclosed 
in a fine membrane with a nucleus inside. These store up 
food which they take out of the blood. They neutralize 
poisons such as alcohol, tobacco and the indol from the 
intestine. 

There are many important cells. Our health depends 
upon their activity. The ancients considered inactivity 
of the liver to be the cause of all mental and spiritual 
depression. The word “melancholia,” which originally 
meant black bile, is now applied to depressive insanity. 
Modern physiology verifies the hunch of the ancients as to 
the influence of the liver for happiness and unhappiness. 
Happiness in turn helps the liver too, laughing makes the 
diaphragm pat the liver on the back. It shakes it up, 
makes us feel good and we want to laugh some more and 
behold! we have a better reason for laughter, for life is 
happier than ever before. 


128 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


WHAT ONE SHAKE-UP DID 

A professor of biology in one of the great universities 
specializes on the lowest forms of life, the amoeba and its 
cousins, each composed of a single cell. He raised a family 
of these in his laboratory and isolated a pair of them in a 
little glass jar all by themselves. He treated them well, 
gave them air, food and light, and watched their destiny 
to see how fast they would multiply and replenish the 
earth, as it were. They did very well for a hundred and 
twenty generations or so, but then commenced to lose their 
pep. Marriages dropped off in the colony and I presume 
divorce was frequent. At any rate, the birth rate declined 
rapidly. The race was threatened with extinction. 

It came to the time when the professor must go to the 
Woods Hole Biological Laboratory on the New England 
coast for his summer work. He packed up his feeble uni¬ 
cellular wards carefully and took them along. There was 
life in the old stock yet. Arriving at Woods Hole and 
unpacking, he set them on a shelf, as he thought, to die. 
The next day he visited them and with the aid of a micro¬ 
scope saw a tremendous activity in town. Things were 
speeding up as they look in a moving picture film when a 
street scene is shown at treble speed. Amcebas were 
dashing hither and yon and generation followed gener¬ 
ation with renewed activity. 

Something had happened. After investigating all 
possible causes for this striking rejuvenation the professor 






JACK DEMPSEY 

A perfectly proportioned physical super-man. 





USING THE STAR-GAZER TO HELP TO COR¬ 
RECT THE WHITE COLLAR SLUMP 

A typical 40-year-old executive getting in training 
for another 40 years. 

(Courtesy of The Popular Science Monthly 





MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 


129 


came to the conclusion that it must have been the shaking 
up that they had received on Long Island Sound and on 
the rattle-bang of the train ride. He tried the experiment 
again on other colonies, letting them stagnate quietly 
into old age and then shaking them up. The miracle 
was repeated. From this it became clear that it was the 
shaking that made the rejuvenation. 

This is a universal truth. Stagnation is the preliminary 
to death. A shake-up is the renewal of life. The cells of 
the liver receive the same kind of stimulation from the 
Churning exercises that the amoebae did in the baggage car. 
So if you wish your liver well and desire to keep it com¬ 
fortably on the right side where it belongs, give it its daily 
massage (the same principle works on the office boy). 

ANTI-CONSTIPATION 

Other organs in the abdomen get the same stimulation, 
the kidneys, the suprarenal glands, the pancreas, with all 
of their functions essential to life and health. But most 
of all, the intestines need our help. They are aided by an 
active liver for a good flow of healthy bile stimulates them 
and prevents putrefaction, pain and trouble. A lazy large 
intestine causes constipation and according to many 
writers, constipation is the root of all evil. The accumu¬ 
lation of rotting, putrefying food waste in the large 
intestine is unquestionably a great menace to the 
health of civilized man. It is an even greater danger to 
woman because the physical inactivity of women makes 


130 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

them subject to it. Nine out of ten sick headaches are 
caused by constipation, most “stomach upsets” are 
caused by constipation. The continual bathing of the 
whole body by the poisons of constipation which get 
through the blood and which the liver and kidneys try to 
carry away, is, in the opinion of modem physicians, the 
most frequent cause of high blood pressure, Bright’s 
disease, degeneration of the heart, and death. While 
modem science has conquered smallpox and has brought 
diphtheria, typhus and malaria and yellow fever many 
stages toward the vanishing point, it has failed to stop the 
ravages of the diseases of the kidneys and blood vessels. 
The diseases that cripple and finally kill our valuable 
active business men in their fifties and sixties are heart 
disease, nephritis and arteritis. 

Louis I. Dublin, the well-known statistician of health, 
told me that this group of circulatory diseases has finally 
reached the evil distinction of killing more men and 
women in the United States annually than do tuberculosis 
and cancer combined. While over-indulgence, alcohol 
and syphilis all have their part in this terrible record, the 
greatest cause of them all is intestinal stagnation,—plain 
constipation. 

It is fair to state that the daily practice of this one exer¬ 
cise alone would save almost innumerable lives while the 
practice of a good all-round health and exercise program 
would unquestionably add years of useful activity to 
countless executives, lawyers, business men and valuable 


MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 


131 

citizens of all kinds. No one medicine or exercise is a 
cure-all, but Churning comes more nearly to playing the 
role than does any other medicine or exercise I know of 
that can be done within the four walls of a room. 

WHEN TO CHURN 

Churning should form a part of every period of morning 
exercise. It should be done twenty times right and 
twenty times left, changing at each ten. Do it slowly and 
with care to make each circle as large and as vigorous as 
possible. The religious devotee of India is likely to use 
Churning for one-half to three-quarters of an hour at a 
time. Needless to say, Churning with its extraordinary 
mechanical effects upon the abdominal organs must not be 
undertaken when there are serious abdominal inflam¬ 
mations which may be active or stimulated into activity. 

Nevertheless, it is being employed in practice and 
hospital for the relief of old inflammations of the large 
intestine, in cases of colitis, adhesions and chronic invalid¬ 
ism. This is a matter, of course, which should be under¬ 
taken only upon the advice of a skilled physician who is 
well informed on exercise and points again to the great 
desirability of the annual health examination. 

VARIATIONS 

The original position for Kundalani was sitting cross- 
legged with the heel of each foot tucked well under the 
opposite hip, with the hands placed on the knees. For 


132 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


ordinary purposes this position has no advantage whatso¬ 
ever over the sitting position on the edge of the bed. 

The most valuable variation and the one I use most fre¬ 
quently is a series of three exercises, the last of which 
corresponds to Churning. The first two are like the 
preliminary practice in learning the exercise in the sitting 
position. These are called the Pussycat, the Dog Wag, 
and the Camel. 

The Pussycat 

Position: On the hands and knees with the arms and 
thighs straight up and down. 

1. The back is arched as high as possible, just like an 

angry pussycat. I find that people can do this 
exercise more readily when they think of the 
pussycat than they can from any other 
description. 

2 . Bend the back down as far as possible, making it 

hollow just as if it were heavily loaded. 

Thus the trunk is bent down and up, corresponding to 
the first preliminary exercises, the front and back dia¬ 
meters practised for Churning. The same inward con¬ 
traction of the abdomen occurs when the back is arched. 

The Dog Wag 

Position: On the hands and knees. 

1. Just the way a dog wags his tail, twist the hips to the 

right without moving the head and shoulders. 
All the bending is done at the waist line. 

2 . Twist the hips to the left. 


MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 


133 


This exercise corresponds to the practice of the second 
exercise used in learning the Churning. These two exer¬ 
cises are also to be done in learning the third exercise, the 
Camel. If you have had any difficulty in learning Churn¬ 
ing, you can learn the Camel on the hands and knees and 
then when you do it sitting down, you are doing Churning. 

The Camel 

This exercise consists in putting together the Dog 
Wag and the Pussycat. They make the larger animal, 
the Camel. I have called this the Camel because I once 
rode on one of these animals and the motion, a combi¬ 
nation of pitching and tossing, seemed to be precisely the 
same. I do not know whether this exercise has ever 
been used before, but I believe it will have a great useful¬ 
ness in the future. 

Position: On the hands and knees. 

1. Raise the back as in the Pussycat. 

2. Keep up like the Pussycat but shift the hips to the 

right as in the Dog Wag. 

3. Keep the hips over to the right but let the back bend 

as in the second motion of the Pussycat. 

4. Keep the back bent and wag the hips toward the 

left. 

5. Keep hips wagged to left and raise the back hard. 

Continue. 

The trunk in this exercise will make a circle very much 
the same as in Churning. The Camel has two great 
advantages over Churning. In the first place the move- 


i 3 4 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

ment is more free. The muscles of the trunk are em¬ 
ployed more vigorously and the bones of the spine get more 
training and flexibility. But the greatest advantage lies 
in the fact that the trunk is horizontal instead of being 
set upright. You will recall that we saw that the great 
advantage of taking abdominal exercises lying down in 
preference to taking them standing up was due to the fact 
that gravity did not need to be overcome. The muscles 
were not required to lift up the abdominal organs before 
they could exercise in their proper places. This was 
applied to the Camel. The position on all fours is the old 
biological position. In the dawn of the race the organs 
were all hung from the backbone. When we get back on 
all fours we place them in their most comfortable and 
favorable position for action. 

Churning then, in this position, gives them a massage 
in the most effective form. This has many advantages, 
most of which are too technically medical for a brief, 
general book. 


THE KINKING COLON 

The large intestine, called the colon, is a tube through 
which the food waste should pass without hindrance. The 
colon has three flexures, or places at which it bends at right 
angles. One of these is under the liver up in the right 
side, the second under the heart, up in the left side, and the 
third down in the left-hand comer. You know what 
would happen if you took a rubber tube and bent it at an 


MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 


135 


angle. Try it and see. You will stop the flow of any 
fluid through it. If the colon gets tightly bent at these 
points or any other point the food mass cannot get through. 
Stagnation, constipation and putrefaction take place. 
This does not ordinarily occur in a healthy man or woman 
but if you let the transverse colon which goes from the 
right to the left side of the abdomen, connecting the 
ascending to the descending colon, droop down and form 
a V instead of a straight line, you have made two kinks 
far worse and added another at the angle of the V. 

This is precisely what occurs when men, women and 
children let their abdominal walls get weak and bulge. 
The transverse colon falls down and makes a V. The food 
waste mass has a treble obstacle to overcome. This is bad 
enough but if we add the usual accompaniment of a 
sedentary life, and overeating, we accentuate all the 
abnormal conditions. 

All of the other exercises which strengthen the 
abdominal wall and lift up the transverse colon will help 
to relieve this condition. The Camel, however, serves an 
additional advantage. This V of the transverse colon 
falls forward as if it were on two hinges, the right and left 
side kinks at the head of the ascending and descending 
colons. Falling forward in this way, it opens these kinks. 
Churning in this attitude can then massage the colon and 
stimulate activity unimpeded. The results in some cases 
are astonishingly prompt and efficient. 

Of course, not all cases of constipation are due to this 


136 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

kinking of the colon. There are at least twelve causes of 
constipation, many of which occur together in any one 
case, and where these kinks form a decided factor in the 
case the best results may be expected. 

The record cure in my files is that of a woman of thirty- 
eight years of age who had had constipation for nineteen 
years and had to take medicine daily and enemas twice a 
week. She took this Churning exercise with two others in 
the series under careful direction and was (apparently) 
cured in two weeks’ time! She has had no return of her 
trouble up to the present time, two and a half years 
later. She says, “Churning is cheaper than cascara and 
more certain.” 

Every case of constipation, however, will certainly not 
be cured in the same way, and those who have this trouble 
(which is, of course, almost everyone) should get a careful 
annual physical examination by their own health physician. 

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 

Churning is an exercise that should be taught to every 
civilized man, woman and child, for it is the simplest, 
most economical and effective method of keeping the 
abdominal organs stimulated and in tone. The seeker 
after good health in great abundance may well adopt it for 
his own special enthusiasm. He should do from twenty- 
four to forty-eight turns a day, dividing them equally 
between the sun-wise turn and the reverse. The only 
danger lies in the fact that he may be tempted to do this 


MASSAGING THE VITAL ORGANS 137 


exercise alone, omitting all others. While it is perhaps 
the best exercise in the sense that it serves more diverse 
and valuable purposes than any other, it is by no means a 
cure-all and should not displace other valuable movements 
of the series. 




















- » 






























































































































































CHAPTER IX 



CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 
EXERCISE FIVE 
CONTENTS 

ACCORDING TO BIOLOGISTS 
PTOSIS 

SKELETAL PTOSIS 
VISCERAL PTOSIS 
BLOOD PTOSIS 
AS WEAK AS A RABBIT 
TESTING BLOOD PTOSIS 
TICKLE TOE 

HOW TO DO THE TICKLE TOE 
SELF-MADE CORSETS 
CORSETS ARE SPLINTS 
VALUE OF BIOLOGICAL CORSETS 
CORSETS ANTEDATE THE PYRAMIDS 
VALUE OF ARTIFICIAL CORSETS 
BAD FEATURES OF CORSETS 
EVIL OF THE BRASSIERE 
WOMAN’S RIGHT TO BEAUTY 
CORSET BUILDERS 
N-E-W-S 
KNEE RAISING 
KICKING 
CROSS KICK 
DOUBLE WHIRL 


139 







CHAPTER IX 



CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 

‘‘God hath made man upright but they have sought out 
many inventions .”—The Preacher. 

ACCORDING TO BIOLOGISTS 

According to the biologists, it took about five hundred 
thousand years to make man upright. The clay into 
which the spirit of life had been breathed by the Great 
Spirit became moulded by the shaping of countless cen¬ 
turies into a being ready to rise to the stature of a man. 
The change came gradually. In the greatest battle for 
the possession of the Unfailing Spring of the Valley of 
Abundance, the giant grandfather of Ab led his band to 
victory, brandishing a terrific club which he had torn 
from a giant red pine. His right foreleg had become 
an arm and his forepaw a hand. He beat his breast with 
his clenched left fist like a resounding bass drum that 
accompanied the howling war cries of his victorious clan. 


142 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


With the first use of a weapon he rose on his haunches 
and stood in a squatting upright position. He made use 
of his hands to make him a man. He taught Ab’s father 
a few of the tricks he had learned and the grandsons did 
credit to the tribe. They grew up an unconquerable, two- 
fisted family that learned to use their hands in many new 
ways. Their hardy progeny chipped out flints and made 
knives. With these they slew and skinned animals and 
made themselves clothes and, when others died of cold, 
they went through hard winters in splendid condition. 
They became artists as well as fighters. They learned the 
trick of keeping flocks, of raising seed-bearing grass. 
They developed agriculture. They began to live in groups, 
they made villages, they cherished tradition, order dawned 
and became the first law of a heaven-destined civilization. 

God had made man upright. 

To become upright was a long, long task. To keep 
upright is difficult. The attraction of gravity is continu¬ 
ally pulling man down again to the place whence he came. 
It took countless ages of evolution to make him stand up. 
It takes only one life-time; in fact, it takes only one day 
of activity, to lay him horizontal again at night. He 
rises on the morrow refreshed but he goes through the day 
matching his strength against the tenacious clinging fingers 
of gravity which, should he weaken, make his head droop, 
pull his shoulders down, flatten his chest and loosen his 
abdomen. Mother Earth is constantly calling,—calling 
him home. 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


T 43 


PTOSIS 

It is a difficult thing to stay straight. It requires 
balance. It requires muscle. The head must be poised 
on the shoulders, the chest held up, the back kept straight 
and unbowed. Otherwise a slow sagging down results. 

This sagging down is called ptosis. Whenever we see it 
it is a sign that the vitality of the man has given way in 
part or in whole to the effect of gravity. His strength has 
been over-matched. 


SKELETAL PTOSIS 

Gravity pulls on every part of the body. It affects the 
skeleton. A man may be six feet tall when he is full of 
vitality and “every inch a man,” but when he becomes 
tired, discouraged or weak he loses from three to four 
inches in height! This is due to the increase of the curves 
of the backbone, the drooping of the head, the slumping 
of the pelvis. This is called skeletal ptosis. It is caused 
by the relaxation of the muscles which hold us up straight. 

If God had made man upright in one quick job instead 
of by a long process of gradual improvement of lower forms, 
he probably would have put a backbone in front as well 
as in the back. From an architectural standpoint it is 
just as absurd to have the supporting framework at the 
rear of the body as it would be to have it at the rear of 
a building and our skyscrapers like a comb stood up on one 
end. What happens to the body is just what would 


144 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


happen if the teeth of the comb got tired. They droop. 
This is skeletal ptosis. In default of the backbone in 
front to keep the body propped up whalebone was used, 
and behold! corsets were invented. 

VISCERAL PTOSIS 

Gravity affects the internal organs. It can do this 
only when the abdominal muscles give way and let the 
lower abdominal wall bulge out. Then the intestines 
slump downward, the liver and the stomach follow, the 
chest flattens and lets the heart go down also. A bulging 
abdomen is a sign of weakness at every age. In the baby 
suffering from malnutrition or rickets, the little panting 
chest sits insignificantly on top of a big, round, soft 
abdomen. If the baby lives the results of this show in 
later life when the lower ribs bulge and the upper chest 
shows depression. The bones tell the history of early 
illness. In later life we find many a prosperous looking 
vest covers a weak, bulging abdomen with all of the 
organs accustomed to their depressed condition and doing 
the best they can against the handicap of indolence. A 
strong abdominal wall prevents this. Artistic ideals of 
manly vigor from the time of the Greeks have been 
expressed in statuary of men with strong, slim waists. 
Not only has there been the noted strength of the muscular 
column of the rectus abdominis at the front, but it has 
been flanked on either side by plates of muscular armor. 
Art has instinctively interpreted the basis of masculine 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


145 

vitality, a strong abdominal wall, as an element in mascu¬ 
line beauty. True art is always biologically correct. 

A strong abdominal wall is a pledge of length of days. 
Its vital support will give every body process a great 
advantage. Disease will shun its possessor. Every 
chance for happiness will be doubled. 

A weak abdominal wall, on the contrary, is like a tomb¬ 
stone of lost hopes and lost vitality. It is the sign of 
feebleness, a pledge of pain, trouble and early departure. 
(See chapter on weight and overweight.) 

BLOOD PTOSIS 

When the war broke out I was sent to one of the great 
training camps as an observer and I found the best point 
of vantage from which to make observations to be the rear 
rank of a regular company as an ordinary buck private. 
On Saturday afternoon we stood “inspection” and the 
inspection, particularly the standing part of it, was no 
joke. We stood at attention for from thirty to forty-five 
minutes. This was the last bit of labor to be done in a 
long, laborious week. The men were tired out. Every 
few minutes or so there would be a thud, the clatter of 
a rifle as it crashed to the ground and a candidate for a 
commission would be stretched on the ground in a dead 
faint. In a few moments another, and perhaps another 
would fall. But it was the tallest men who fell the 
fastest. 

They fainted, because they got an attack of BloodPtosis. 


146 physical exercise for daily use 


The machinery which keeps the blood up in the head got 
tired and gave way and the heart could not pump enough 
blood to the brain to keep it awake. This was because the 
walls of the abdominal blood vessels weakened and bulged 
and allowed the blood to collect in a great stagnant pool. 
This is all very well when we sleep at night but it will 
never permit a man to keep his brain going in an upright 
position. This blood ptosis is illustra ted by an experiment 
conducted several years ago on rabbits. 

“AS WEAK AS A RABBIT” 

Rabbit No. i was hung up by his ears with his tail end 
down. He died after three-quarters of an hour,—from 
blood ptosis. 

Rabbit No. 2 was hung up by his hind legs with his head 
down. An absurd position for a rabbit, yet he was fairly 
comfortable after twenty-four hours. 

Rabbit No. 3 was hung up by the ears, but a band (like a 
corset) was placed around the lower abdomen. Instead 
of dying in three-quarters of an hour, like Rabbit No. 1, he 
lived so long that he might have died of starvation. 

Rabbit No. 1 died of blood ptosis. The machinery 
which keeps the blood up in the head in rabbits in the 
upright position is so weak that it will not work more than 
three-quarters of an hour. 

Some men are as weak as this, and some women are 
weaker. We all know the woman who says, “My dear, I 
simply can’t do a thing in the morning until I get my 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


147 


corsets on. If I make an effort and try to get about, I just 
simply literally faint.” She has an abdominal wall and a 
sympathetic system blood control just about on a par 
with the rabbit. She has blood ptosis. 

Blood ptosis is an every-day occurrence. Some men 
and women are half-fainting most of the time. They drag 
themselves around and complain of lack of pep. This is 
because they have not vitality enough to keep the blood 
from collecting in the abdomen and the abdominal wall 
fails to come to the assistance of a weakened circula¬ 
tion. They have no more strength than a rabbit. Such 
people need a thorough investigation of their bodies and 
minds to find out what influences are undermining their 
strength. It may be a sluggish intestine, a focal infection 
in the tonsil, at the root of a tooth, too much food, a 
weakened kidney, too little sleep, no exercise or general 
dissipation. Whatever it is, the health doctor should 
discover it and set him on the right track. 

TESTING BLOOD PTOSIS 

Blood Ptosis is revealed by taking the blood pressure 
lying down and comparing it with the blood pressure 
standing up. If the blood pressure falls on rising it shows 
that the circulation is weak. If, on the contrary, it rises 
it shows that the machine for keeping the blood well 
distributed to the upper part of the body is in good working 
order and the man has physiological power enough to be 
upright. The heart rate is also taken into consideration, 


148 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


for when the circulation succumbs in part to gravity and 
fails to send the blood up to the heart in sufficient quanti¬ 
ties, the heart beats more rapidly than it does when one is 
lying down. In fact, one may get a fair idea of the 
efficiency of his circulation control by comparing the heart 
rate lying down with the heart rate standing up. It 
should not increase more than ten beats to the minute. 
Persons in poor condition will show a difference of thirty, 
forty or fifty beats to the minute increase on standing. 

Blood ptosis tests should of course be made by the 
physician as a part of his regular medical examination. 

THE TICKLE TOE 

In an old stable near Madison Avenue in New York 
City, Dr. Walter B. Peet was training a group of candi¬ 
dates for the Columbia University crew. The previous 
year Columbia had gloriously won a great race from her 
college rivals. But this year most of the older heroes had 
been graduated and preparations were made to get out a 
large number of new candidates. 

Dr. Peet looked over the raw recruits and delivered 
himself somewhat as follows: 

“Young men, you have a good deal to learn. You’ve 
got to understand that you don’t row entirely with the 
arms; they are the least important for they are only 
connecting rods. You row with your legs, you row with 
your backs, but most of all you row with your guts! 
Now, stand up there in a line and do this exercise a hun- 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


149 

dred times and every time you report for training start 
right in and roll up your hundred.” 

We lined up and learned the exercise, which I later 
called the “Tickle Toe.” It did its bit in making a 
strong crew, and one of the squad at least has never 
forgotten the exercise. He has given it directly and 
indirectly to several hundred thousand persons, young and 
old, and now he is giving it to you. 

HOW TO DO THE TICKLE TOE 

Stand up straight, with the feet spread wide apart. 
You have had all the coddling you are going to get today. 
Now you are rearing up on your hind legs and facing the 
world. 

Position: Stretch the arms out to the sides. 

Lift the air with the flat hands just like the wings of an 
aeroplane. This lifts the head, expands the chest, raises 
the ribs, straightens the back and is a fine exercise in itself. 

1. Twist the trunk, swinging the right arm back and 
the left arm forward, turning the body at the same time 
so that if you had a wand across the shoulders from 
fingertip to fingertip it would be kept perfectly straight. 
Swing as far as you can. 

2. Swing forward and all the way around to the left 
in a similar fashion, not forgetting to turn the shoulders 
with the arms, making the whole twist at the waist. 
Now the left arm is back. 


150 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

3. Swoop that left hand way down and around until it 
touches the right big toe, bending the knee so that it 
touches the chest. The other arm goes back up into the air. 

Hold this position momentarily, then repeat the same 
exercise. The left hand which is down by the floor swings 
up and back where it came from and you aeroplane back 
to the right, facing the right and making the twist at the 
waist as before. The right hand is now back and of 
course that is the hand which next swoops down to touch 
the opposite toe. 

This is an easy exercise to learn and a simple one to do. 
Its rhythm is “swing, swing, touch,” “swing, swing, 
touch,” corresponding to the two aeroplane swoops and 
the Tickle Toe position itself. 

SELF-MADE CORSETS 

Aeroplaning, that is, twisting the body with the arms 
sailing about in circles, is a splendid exercise for the trunk 
muscles which form the sides of the abdominal wall. The 
front of the abdominal wall is formed by the rectus abdom¬ 
inis, the back by the backbone and two heavy columns 
of muscle, the quadratus lumborum. But running from 
the ribs above the quadratus in back, around to the 
front and down to the pubic bone is a triple set of muscles. 
The fibres of the innermost run transversely and it is 
called the transversalts. The fibres of the second run 
obliquely upward and it is called the internal oblique. 
The fibres of the outermost run downward and forward in 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


I5i 

the direction of the fingers when the hands are placed on 
the hips, and is called the external oblique. 

The fibres of these muscles interlock with the muscles of 
the chest. These muscles are the great conservers of 
vitality. They are the best kind of corsets, for they 
have been provided by dear old Mother Nature. They 
are three-ply, reinforced in front and self-adjusted. 
They never wear out and require only a little attention. 
You need never buy a new pair as long as you live, but 
you must take care of the ones you have for they bag and 
bulge when you become weak, tired or old. If you can 
keep well and fit and not work too hard, these are all the 
corsets that anyone needs. 

While this is true, it is just upon this point that rests the 
great divergence of opinion with reference to corsets. 
Some enthusiastic hygienists preach that corsets are 
never necessary. On the other hand, some would have 
us believe that corsets are essential to everyone. Both ex¬ 
tremists are half right, each, therefore, doubly dangerous. 

Corsets remind me of the definition given by the small 
Sunday School scholar to the question “What is a lie?” 
He replied, “A lie is an abomination unto the Lord and— 
and,” he paused a moment, “but an ever-present help in 
time of trouble.” 


CORSETS ARE SPLINTS 

Corsets are a very necessary help when there is weakness 
but they are essentially a splint. A broken leg is weak and 


152 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

requires splints. When it becomes strong, splints should 
be thrown away. Weakness and weariness are so common 
and so justified by the urgencies and strains of our “up¬ 
right” life that an abdominal support to correct the 
drooping of the viscera and blood ptosis is almost a 
common necessity. They certainly release a good deal 
of energy for other uses. Corsets economize vitality, but 
do much to impair it when used as a substitute for health. 

Just as splints worn on a broken leg for a long time cause 
it to atrophy, so corsets worn for a long time cause the 
abdominal wall to weaken and atrophy (unless exercise is 
taken to strengthen it). They occupy somewhat the 
same place in human economy as laxatives. In case of 
need they are necessary, but we as a civilized race lazily 
permit the need, court the necessity and become intestinal 
invalids. 

To wear corsets to economize vitality without cultivat¬ 
ing vitality is like living on an unearned income,—com¬ 
fortable but devitalizing. 

THE VALUES OF BIOLOGICAL CORSETS 

The difference between a woman with a strong set of 
muscles running up and down and around the abdomen 
and a woman who is weak, droopy and bulgy, is greater 
than the difference between a woman who is merely not 
sick and a chronic invalid. Expressed in terms of money, 
it is greater than the difference between a multi-millionaire 
and the average man. 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


153 


The woman with strong-toned abdominal muscles has 
every chance of a good digestion, freedom from consti¬ 
pation, every assurance against diabetes, a positive pro¬ 
tection against obesity. The all-important functions of 
the generative organs, so often fraught with danger, pain 
and disability, have every favorable circumstance. The 
heart and lungs are supported, the circulation is strength¬ 
ened, the emotional system is buoyed up, and life is 
stronger and brighter as well as longer and more full of 
happiness. Strong abdominal muscles are biological 
riches. They are obtainable by every woman who has the 
intelligence and will take the time and trouble to find out 
the exercises which produce the desired results and proceed 
to use them as consistently as she takes her meals. 

The best way to provide these biological corsets is to 
grow them in the children as they develop. Strange to 
say, the children who are in the best circumstances often 
get the poorest chances. The little ones who are left to 
themselves to run about the streets and climb fire-escapes 
either hustle or die. Only the strong ones live. The 
carefully protected child is preserved from all rough 
contacts, prevented from using her muscles except under 
the most careful supervision, and she becomes pot-bellied 
and hollow-chested. The weak ones are kept alive, the 
intestinal tract gets stagnant, the tongue is coated, there 
are continual crops of adenoids and “tonsils,” and the 
more she is coddled the weaker she gets. Simple outdoor 
games with a governess and even athletics are not sufficient. 




154 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


She needs special trunk-making exercises which go right 
to the spot, prescribed by a physician who knows muscles 
and maidens as well as medicine. 

The need of formal corrective exercise is just as general 
as the upright posture, and every child, boy or girl, in 
school or out, needs to strengthen the abdominal wall. 

Perhaps we can remember when we were children, we 
were deterred from “making faces” of the most atrocious 
and startling character by the warning, “If you don’t look 
out, your face will stick that way when you grow up.” 
There was some truth in this, as we are inclined to believe 
when we note some of the faces about us. It was un¬ 
doubtedly true in regard to abdominal walls, for we can 
read in the structure of the chest, spine, abdomen, shoul¬ 
ders, and in every baggy line of the half-made, half-crippled 
adult the history of coddled or neglected years. 

The parents who are wise will have corsets fitted into 
their boys and girls as early and as expertly as they may, 
and will then see that they are kept in good repair. 

CORSETS ANTEDATE THE PYRAMIDS 
Hygienic muscle corsets were first worn by the first 
vertebrates, artificial corsets before Tut-ankh-amen. 
They were certainly found in Rome at the time when the 
luxurious, lazy patrician women bandaged the lower 
abdomen. In Germany in the Middle Ages we hear of 
abdominal supports. They were introduced into France, 
and at the time of Catherine de Medicis, no court lady 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


155 


was permitted to have a waist of more than thirteen 
inches. Tight lacing continued among the aristocracy, 
whose women did not have to support themselves by 
muscular labor, with varying degrees of severity. 

Tight lacing made the figure over-feminine, accentuating 
the hips and bust as efforts to gild fine gold. It also had a 
motive similar to the Chinese binding of the foot,—to 
demonstrate that the possessor of the thin waist was use¬ 
less for anything but ornament and far above the common 
need of labor. 

The change in fashion from the narrow waist is ascribed 
to Sarah Bernhardt who appeared as a boy in L'Aiglon. 
It is certain that the straight front corset appeared shortly 
after that time in 1900. The narrow waist persisted, 
however, until 1905, when it gradually gave way to the 
normal feminine figure with a Venus de Milo waist. 
From 1920 to 1923 it went still further until there was no 
waist at all and the desirable figure was the appearance of 
an immature girl of sixteen, theoretically cylindrical 
without a suggestion of roundness in contour. This boy¬ 
ish figure is a struggle to appear young and unspoiled. 
It is perhaps the least harmful of any of the corset fashions 
since the time of Cleopatra. 

VALUES OP ARTIFICIAL CORSETS 

A corset is useful when it aids failing nature. It is 
good in proportion to its imitation of the structure and 
mechanics of the body. 


156 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

When there is a great increase in abdominal contents 
from tumor, cyst or child bearing, a support must be 
worn until the condition is changed by operation or child¬ 
birth. When the sacro-iliac joint at the lower back is 
loosened, a belt may be worn until exercise corrects the 
trouble. When the abdominal wall is weak and bulging 
there is a ptosis of the organs, and a proper belt should be 
worn. Exercises should also be taken, otherwise the belt 
confirms the weakness. 

A band around the lower abdomen below the crest of 
the hips will support tired muscles at the end of the day. 
It can be recommended for everyone, for it can do no harm. 
A band four inches or so wide is the minimum of the mod¬ 
ern corsets which are no more than a sacro-iliac belt 
or hip girdle. It is also the fundamental base upon which 
all good corsets should be built. It gives support to the 
abdominal “front basement” and its pressure on the 
lower back is also a support to the sacro-iliac joints. 

As we go above the level of the hips we get into danger 
increasingly as we reach the waistline and go above it. 

BAD FEATURES OF CORSETS 

Support from below is most innocent and beneficial. If, 
however, the corset maker gets this uplift from its anchor¬ 
age in the small of the back above the sacrum he does 
harm, for the load of the abdomen tends to increase the 
curve of the small of the back and weaken it. This is 
shown in many women of middle age with a deep, stylish, 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


157 


hollow back (style 1905), hips back, pelvis tilted downward 
and an abdomen that has no support except the artificial 
one which in this posture is quite necessary. A bad 
physical complex which has damaged many women, ruined 
their tempers and made them unhappy, crippled wives and 
mothers. 

The lumbar curve should never be increased by a corset. 
The ideal back is almost straight at this point and the 
ideal corset should be almost straight to help the back, not 
to break it. 

Increased abdominal pressure may result from too great 
constriction of the abdomen in an endeavor to reduce its 
apparent size. A little confinement below makes a sup¬ 
port for the organs, increases the blood pressure when it 
tends to fail, relieving blood ptosis and aiding nature 
generally. 

Increased abdominal pressure impedes circulation and 
digestion, and if it crowds the organs upward it interferes 
with respiration and heart action. This formerly occurred 
in the tight lacing at the waist line. It is found now 
in the straight, barrel-shaped corset when it is used to 
* ‘ reduce. ’ ’ The ‘ ‘ pleasing plumps ” and “ stylish stouts * * 
have profited by the expansion of the new corset at the 
waist line, but tight lacing is still prevalent. It is not a 
substitute for youth and vitality. It cannot oxidize 
carbohydrates and prevent the deposit of fat. 

Any corset that goes above the waist is likely to restrict 
the lifting of the ribs in breathing. This is not so bad as 


158 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

back distortion or downward pressure but it is a continual 
handicap by decreasing breathing. This decreases the 
body ability to use its food and tends to increase the 
deposit of fat,—and the self-reducing ” corset of this 
type thereby actually increases weight! 

Garters are usually attached to the corset. If they pull 
from the hip girdle, all is well: if from the back, increasing 
the curve, it is not so well. It is worst of all when the 
garters are hung from the shoulders as they were in some 
“hygienic” waists of older times. This garter pull helps 
gravity drag down shoulders and chests and adds one 
more burden to life. Even round garters are far better. 

THE EVIL OF THE BRASSIERE 

The incorporation of the brassiere with the corset is a 
great mistake if the garter pull is borne by the shoulders. 
If it is transmitted to the spine by a bias device, it helps 
to make an attractive and efficient body support. Every¬ 
thing that has been said against corsets can be said 
against the brassiere. The chief sin of the present gener¬ 
ation is binding down the chest to give the undeveloped 
boyish figure. Tight lacing has been transferred to the 
region of the heart and lungs. It restricts breathing, 
impedes circulation and finally gives the boyish flapper 
a sort of woe-begone, weakly defiant expression of body 
that eventually creeps into her face as well. Fortunately, 
styles change. 


CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


159 


WOMAN’S RIGHT TO BEAUTY 

Corsets used for the purpose of beauty have their values. 
Women are always justified in assuming Nature’s biologi¬ 
cal virtues if they have them not. 

“Little dabs of powder, little spots of paint, 

Make the pretty ladies look like what they ain’t,” 

and the corset helps. 

The best way, however, to exhibit biological attractive¬ 
ness is actually to possess it. Put the rouge in the cheek 
itself, the sparkle within the eye instead of on the eye¬ 
lashes, and make the form of the body tell the fine truth of 
attractive good health. I know of many cases of women 
who have ceased being ugly and become beautiful by 
adopting Nature’s stock of beautifiers under intelligent 
medical prescription. On the contrary, a good many have 
been half-ruined by exercise charlatans and fat reduction¬ 
ists, but many more are gradually deteriorating by neglect, 
hard living, hard work, or laziness. 

Corsets have been getting less objectionable and more 
useful as the decades and centuries fly past. Today the 
balance in favor of their use is greater than ever before. 
This is true largely because corsets have never been more 
intelligently made than at present. This is the result of 
a greater knowledge on the part of the general public as 
to what is good for them and what is bad for them, and a 
greater wisdom in applying the discoveries of the physician 
to the affairs of everyday life and commerce. They are 


i6o PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


less generally needed than a decade or two past because 
of the introduction of physical training into the lives of 
the children at school,—one of the greatest benefits man 
has devised for himself in the last century. 

Let every woman and every man, for that matter, build 
a self-made corset, assured that this brand will fit the best, 
last the longest and add most to beauty and health. But 
in this world of effort and labor and long days of playing 
the part of upright men and women in a straining turmoil 
of hectic civilization, a little reinforcement and defense 
against the tireless clutching fingers of gravity is not only 
permissible but desirable, if wisely used. 

CORSET BUILDERS 

The most universally used trunk exercise is ordinary 
trunk bending. It has the advantage of simplicity and 
vigor; it not only strengthens the abdominal wall, but it 
gives an excellent auto-massage as well. In its simplest 
form I call it the N-E-W-S because it bobs the head to the 
four points of the compass and it gives news to the internal 
organs that something is going on. 

N-E-W-S 

Position: Standing, trunk erect, feet widely spread 
apart, hands on hips. 

1. Bend forward and down as far as possible. 

2. Bend backward as far as possible. 

3. Bend to the right. 

4. Bend to the left. 

Repeat 4 to 12 times. 



N-E-W-S 

One of the best and simplest internal corset builders. 
This illustrates the North-South part of the movement. 
Note especially the vigor of the backward bend. 


\ 


» 






N-E-W-S 

The East-West part of the movement, good 
abdominal massage and a waist line reducer. 



CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


161 


This exercise is done with an enthusiastic swinging 
motion, one position swinging directly into the next with¬ 
out stopping. The new convert to exercise will find 
difficulty in bending back as far as he should. A good rule 
is to bend back until you can see the opposite wall, at least 
where it meets the ceiling if not half-way down the wall 
to some picture which can be taken as a landmark. 

There are as many ways of doing trunk bending as there 
are teachers of physical training. This method gives 
as much benefit with as few disadvantages as any. It is 
important to draw the abdomen in when the trunk bends 
forward for the muscles will stretch when the trunk goes 
backward and we desire to have shortening as well as 
strengthening of the abdominal muscles. 

KNEE RAISING 

Position: Standing, trunk erect, feet together, with 
elbows bent, placing the hands so that they are in front 
waist high. 

1. Raise the right knee until it hits the hand. 

2. Down. 

3. Raise the left knee until it hits the hand. 

4. Position. 

Repeat 8 to 16 times. 

The movement should be 120 counts to the minute. 
This exercise is designed not only to strengthen the 
abdominal wall but also to massage the abdomen. Its 


162 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


effect can be increased as in the horizontal exercise of a 
similar nature by placing the fist in the groin so that when 
the knee is raised it will push it into the abdomen just 
where the massage is needed most. This exercise is like 
the Appendix-Sigmoid Special. 

The knee raising exercise is described above only in its 
elementary form. It should be made more difficult by 
raising the hands to the height of the breast and then 
using them as a target for the knees. When one becomes 
really lithe and strong the knee can be made to hit the 
shoulder. This cannot, of course, be done if there is any 
bulging encumbrance at the waist line, which faithful 
trial and work at this exercise will serve to reduce. 

Caution: This exercise loses its value almost entirely 

if the hand is brought to the knee instead of the knee being 
brought up to the hand. If you are fat or lazy be on your 
guard against this. 

KICKING 

Fighting in olden times was done with everything a man 
had. He used not only two fists and any convenient club, 
but his head and feet as well. Kicking gives exercise to 
all of the muscles of the body from the toes to the head 
and it is one of the best exercises for the abdominal muscles 
that we can use. 

Stretch the right hand forward at the height of the 
shoulder and as quickly as you can kick the hand with the 
right foot and then with the left. At the same time be 



A vigorous, trunk-twisting flexing exercise, which will put strong, 
elastic, tissue into the flanks, and reduce the girth of the waist and hips. 


THE CROSS KICK 










CORSETS INSIDE AND OUT 


163 


sure not to lower the hand to the foot but honestly bring 
the foot right up to the hand. Be sure also to keep the 
head and chest up as well and do not double up like a jack¬ 
knife. Repeat this double exercise eight times, pausing 
for two deep double breaths in between, and you have a 
good dose of abdominal work. 

THE CROSS KICK 

This is harder and will take some training. 

Stretch the arms straight out sideways at the height of 
the shoulders. Then, without letting them drop, kick the 
left hand with the right foot. Return the foot to place and 
then kick the right hand with the left foot. This gives 
the whole body a vigorous twist and it also trains the 
body to be able to stand tremendous twists and hard 
strains. It will put whipcord into the flanks quicker than 
almost any other exercise I know. 

THE DOUBLE WHIRL 

This is a trunk bending and twisting exercise encouraged 
by the arms which do a pinwheel whirl which requires 
considerable training. 

Position: Separate the feet, bend the right knee and 
place the left hand on the right toe with the right arm 
straight up and back. This is very much like the Tickle 
Toe position. 

I. Raise the left hand, stretching out to the right as 
far as possible, circle it up in the air, reaching 


164 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

high. Continue the circle over to the left, reach¬ 
ing out as far as you can to the left and bring the 
hand down past the left foot and knee and con¬ 
tinue it up behind as far as it will go. During 
the time the left hand is doing this great big circle 
the right arm is following it around and when the 
left hand goes up and back the right hand natu¬ 
rally comes down and touches the left toe, and the 
position is just the same as it was on the other 
side. 

2. Now it is the turn of the right hand to make the 
great circle far out, far up, and way over to the 
left and down past the right knee and up behind, 
while the left hand follows it and finds its place by 
the right toe. 

This movement gives exercise to the whole trunk, sides, 
back and front and is one of the best that we have. It 
should be done from eight to twelve times for morning 
exercise and twice that number at other times, depending 
upon the other exercises in the series. 

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 

This chapter has been devoted to the strengthening of 
the abdominal wall and the moulding of a man into an 
upright being with a trunk as strong and straight as that 
of a Norway pine. A man or a woman so girded about 
with strength has developed a priceless quality and one 
which will do much to insure a long life filled with health, 
happiness and efficiency in great abundance. 


CHAPTER X 



PEP STEPS 

EXERCISE SIX 
TRAINING FOR A LIFE 

CONTENTS 


THE ATHLETES 
THE RACE OF LIFE 

“KEEP THY HEART WITH ALL DILIGENCE” 
THE VICTIM OF PNEUMONIA 
THE MAN WHO WON HIS BATTLE 
HOW TO TRAIN THE HEART 
TRAINING THE ARTERIES 
EDUCATING THE VEINS—BLOOD PTOSIS 
DIGESTION AND GASTRO INTESTINAL TONICS 
ENDURANCE 
ORGANIC EXERCISES 
RUNNING 

THE DANCE—INDIAN STEP 
THE SIDE ROCKER 
FORWARD ROCKER 
SWING STEP 
IRISH KICK 
TESTS 

BLOOD PTOSIS 
PULSE RECOVERY 


165 
















CHAPTER X 



IN TRAINING FOR LIFE. 

PEP STEPS 

THE ATHLETES 

See the athletes lined up at the start waiting for the 
crack of the pistol,—splendid specimens of the human 
race, crouched behind the line with backs arched and legs 
bent like magnificent steel springs, ready to leap out into 
space and dash down the long stretch with every fibre 
bursting with intense, powerful action in a splendid rush 
of commanding, overwhelming force. 

Man at his best! The product of all that science can 
add to the endowment of nature. The athlete has been 
trained. The wisdom of years of experience of the high- 
priced college coaches has been brought to bear to bring 
these young men to perfect condition. They are trained 
to run a race, to win a prize, to bring honor to the college, 
to demonstrate the superiority of their Alma Mater and to 
magnify her glory. 


167 


168 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


So it has been from the beginning, wherever there have 
been young men, and so it will be until the end, lest the 
world decay and die. This is nature’s old-fashioned way 
of making men, of testing them, of insuring the perpetu¬ 
ation of the fitness she approves. 

THE RACE OF LIFE 

But where is the training for the race of life? Where 
are men brought into condition to run the full length of 
the course, to overcome its hazards and to win the prize 
of success? Where is the training that will fit a man 
powerfully to stride through the years, avoiding the 
obstacles of failure, the disasters of disease to win through 
to a serene old age? 

In the schools there is physical training. 1 The colleges 
are following suit, but the men and women in business 
or profession and the worker who has never been to college 
must take their own chances. There is no compulsory 
training. He is in charge of himself. He can train himself 
into good condition,—he can let himself deteriorate just 
as wisdom or stupidity dictates. Perhaps it is just as well 
that this is the case because nature, ever mindful of the 
progress of the race, will permit the ignorant and careless 
to perish while those who are wise will live and transmit 
their wisdom to a race of increasing brilliance. 

Races on the cinder track and in the industrial world are 

1 Since 1916 twenty-eight states have followed the example of New York 
State and have made physical training compulsory in the public schools. 


PEP STEPS 


169 

won not so much by strength of leg as they are by strength 
of the muscles of the heart and of the other parts of the 
circulation. Races of life are made not only successful but 
long and happy by the strength and soundness of the heart 
and circulation. We have seen that the cardio-vascular 
diseases are rapidly becoming the leading causes of 
death. 

The old warning of the Bible, “Keep thy heart with all 
diligence for out of it are the issues of life” has a very 
forceful application to present-day affairs. The training 
of the heart for the race of life is one of the wisest expendi¬ 
tures of time and effort that can be made. 

THE VICTIM OF PNEUMONIA 

A few days ago I was called to the bedside of one of the 
eminent young lawyers of the East. He had an attack of 
pneumonia. Everything that could be done for him had 
apparently been done. Physicians and nurses were in 
constant attendance, and oxygen was being administered 
continually. I examined the patient, verified the diagno¬ 
sis and proceeded to listen to his heart. It was beating 
with great rapidity with shallow, hurried throbs, trying 
its best to push the blood through the engorged lungs. 
This was to be expected. I carefully measured its size 
above and across and turned away with a bitter sensation 
of defeat, for I knew that that heart could not last out 
the day. It was too small, too weak,—it had never been 
trained. There was nothing that could be done. It was 


170 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


too late. If he had trained his heart with but a thousandth 
of the attention he had used in training his brain, not for 
the running of a hundred-yard dash but for the running 
of the race of life, with the long strain of pneumonia as a 
hazard, he would have won through, whereas at the end 
of a few hours—he died. 

THE MAN WHO WON HIS BATTLE 

Not so, however, the architect whose beautiful struc¬ 
tures are springing up in New York’s most fashionable 
streets. He was also brought down with pneumonia in the 
same week and his age tallied to a year with that of the 
lawyer on a nearby street. But there was a great differ¬ 
ence in the two men. I knew the architect’s heart for I 
had worked with it. He had been sent to me by an alert 
leader in medicine six months previously with the request, 
“ Put him in condition. He needs it.” I had found him 
flabby inside and out, slightly rheumatic, his liver with a 
grouch, and his heart a disgrace to a human being. He 
caught the training idea, however, and pursued his course 
steadily and with success. His flesh hardened, his liver 
became not only reasonable but co-operative and his heart 
took on the steady action of a high-pow T ered automobile. 
His eye got bright, his back straightened and there came a 
bit of a swagger and lilt to his walk. 

But, “even as you and I,” he put in a week’s hard work 
on a big job and used up his reserve. A pneumonia germ 
caught him and laid him flat. But this was the difference: 


PEP STEPS 


171 

he did not die,—he was out again in three weeks. He was 
in training. A good heart helps fight disease. 

HOW TO TRAIN THE HEART 

The heart is a muscle. It can be trained like the biceps. 
It can be made strong, or it can be allowed to become 
weak. 

During the last ten years I have frequently examined 
the hearts of the six-day bicycle riders at Madison Square 
Garden. They are enormous in size. They amaze my 
friends the professors of medicine, for they have never seen 
anything like them. Doctors as a rule believe that a large 
heart is a bad heart. It is true that many large hearts are 
bad. When a valve leaks the heart must work harder and 
grows larger; when the heart is neglected it may grow big 
and fat like the abdomen; when the arteries become hard 
and the kidneys fibrous, the blood pressure rises and the 
heart must work hard and grow large to meet the strain. 
Lastly, when the heart weakens it fails and dilates, also a 
large heart. A large heart may be good or bad depending 
upon its quality of structure. 

But the heart that is too small is weak and feeble 
although still in a sense normal. The heart we want is one 
that is muscular enough and strong enough to carry a man 
through a long life and meet the emergencies by the way, 
but not big enough so that it constitutes a needless burden 
to itself. 


172 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


TRAINING THE ARTERIES 

The arteries can also be trained. They also have 
muscles. They dilate when the throb of the heart fills 
them with a quick rush of blood. They contract upon the 
blood mass and make it flow ahead in the interval between 
the beats. In ordinary daily life they throb but little and 
their walls tend to become limited in movement. 

Muscular exercise makes them dilate and contract much 
more than ordinarily. The muscles in their walls contract 
and relax just as do the muscles in the arms and legs and in 
just the same way they refresh and cleanse themselves by 
their own activity. Exercise therefore tones up and 
strengthens the arterial walls. It keeps them young. 
“A man is as old as his arteries” is a very true saying 
and one of the best ways to keep the arteries young is to 
exercise them. This is an important point that has just 
come into notice in the medical world. 1 

In another way exercise helps the arteries. Hardness 
is caused not only by stagnation but by poisons circulating 
in the blood. These may come from alcohol, tobacco, 
syphilis, or most commonly from the intestinal tract where 
food ferments and decays. As we have seen, some of our 
exercises are especially designed to prevent this. 

The action of the arteries in contraction and expansion 
is essential to the efficient use of the body. They control 
the distribution of the blood. The heart merely pumps 


1 See Bibliography in Appendix. 


PEP STEPS 


173 

while they distribute. When we want more blood in the 
muscles the arteries in the muscles expand while the 
arteries inside the trunk contract, to supply the blood that 
is needed. When we have a good meal, the arteries in the 
outside of the body contract while those around the 
intestinal tract expand. Sometimes this causes a sen¬ 
sation of chilliness and gives an explanation to the quaint 
old saying, “If you eat to be cold, you will live to be old.” 
When we wish to go to sleep the arteries and the veins in 
the abdomen relax and much of the blood goes to sleep too. 

Muscular exercise trains the arteries, insures the proper 
distribution of the blood and reinforces every activity 
of the body. 


EDUCATING THE VEINS 

Varicose veins occur around the ankles and legs of 
people who stand still at their work for long periods. 
They are hardly ever found in people who walk about in 
their work and do ten times as much labor. This is 
because the rhythmic contraction of the muscles of the 
legs keeps the veins healthy and helps to push the blood 
up into the body towards the heart. 

There is one set of veins the health of which is of greatest 
importance and these are the veins of the abdomen sur¬ 
rounding the intestinal tract. They form the splanchnic 
pool where the blood rests at night and where it stagnates 
when people are only half awake all of the time. When 
these veins are strong they contract when people stand up 


174 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

and the blood is kept up under good pressure in the head. 
When they are weak and relaxed, the brain is robbed 
of its blood supply and people faint, just like the rabbits 
referred to in the last chapter. 

When the muscles of the abdomen are strong, trained by 
the trunk exercises just described, they help the veins 
squeeze the blood upward, but the veins themselves must 
do a great deal of it. There is no way of training them to 
be strong more efficiently than by muscular exercise, 
although we can do a great deal by the proper use of hot 
and cold water bathing and spraying. 

A well-trained set of abdominal veins is the basis of all 
endurance. It has been found that heart failure, fre¬ 
quently given as the cause of death, is usually not heart 
failure at all: it is vein failure. The heart is willing enough 
to go on pumping if it only has blood to pump. People die 
in many diseased conditions because the veins of the 
abdomen have become paralysed and the man simply 
bleeds to death in his own abdomen. This is one of the 
newest and most promising chapters that have recently 
been written in the science of medicine as it deals with the 
basis of strength, health and efficiency. 1 

It has also a great deal to do with happiness. When the 
spirits fall the blood pressure falls and the whole body 
droops. This is because unhappiness relaxes the nerves 
which control the abdominal veins. Happiness, on the 
contrary, stimulates the sympathetic nervous system 

1 See Appendix for reference. 


PEP STEPS 


175 


which controls these veins. Happiness also increases 
respiration. It leads to laughter which anatomically is a 
respiratory exercise, a rhythmic contraction of the dia¬ 
phragm and a massage of the liver. We have seen that 
the diaphragm “pats the liver on the back” when we have 
a hearty laugh. Thus it will be seen that the most impor¬ 
tant muscles of the body are those which control the 
circulation, the heart, arteries and veins. 

DIGESTION 

When we exercise and a muscle contracts it uses up both 
food and oxygen. Oxygen must be brought by the heart 
and arteries to the muscles from the lungs. The food must 
be brought by the same route from its storage place in the 
liver and this in turn as we have explained in Chapter II 
calls upon the stomach and intestines for activity. This 
is the way we get hungry and this is the reason that well- 
to-do people nowadays seldom know what hunger is. 
The supply of food so far exceeds the demand that Nature 
never has to send in a call for a supply. One of the hap¬ 
piest sensations that man can experience is that keen 
eagerness of tissue which pervades him as he comes in 
from a long hike, an afternoon of golf, a horseback ride, a 
bout of boxing or tennis, washes up and sits down to a good 
meal. This is one of the joys that result from health and 
pledge its continuance. 

The best gastro-intestinal tonic is exercise. In fact, 
there is no way we can normally stimulate the stomach 


176 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

and intestines except by exercise. The body is fifty-five 
per cent or more made up of muscle. The alimentary 
canal with all of its glands, the liver and the pancreas, were 
designed to support an active, not a sedentary, body. If 
this alimentary factory is run only on half time there is no 
wonder that all the little workers, the countless cells that 
make up the structure, become lazy and get into trouble. 
As the old Sunday School motto has it, “ Satan always 
finds mischief for idle hands to do.” 

Nine-tenths of all human ills, it has been claimed by 
some authors, are due to intestinal stagnation. We 
agree with the conservative estimate that the major¬ 
ity of diseases and deaths are caused by intestinal defi¬ 
ciencies which can be prevented by proper muscular 
activity and proper food. It is certain that over half of 
the diseases of the circulation which have been referred to 
arise from this cause. Therefore, for the sake of the pre¬ 
vention of organic disease of all varieties and the extension 
of our years to their fullness, take exercise which affects 
the organic equipment. 


ENDURANCE 

Nobody desires to be merely just free from disease. 
We wish to work, strive, produce, and overcome obstacles. 
We wish to amount to something in this world. This 
means endurance. I do not mean necessarily the kind 
of endurance that we see in a Marathon race where the 
runner keeps on mile after mile for a half-dozen leagues 


PEP STEPS 


177 


or more. I mean the endurance which enables a man 
to do six days’ work a week and come up fresh and full of 
zest on Monday morning, for another week’s work ready 
to meet all obstacles and overcome them, with an appetite 
for achievement. 

This kind of endurance is based upon organic soundness. 
Not mere absence of disease but good, healthy, vigorous 
action superior to the ordinary degree of only average 
health. The liver and pancreas, for instance, can do an 
ordinary amount of work and supply enough bile and 
pancreatic juice of standard quality to dispose of the meal 
you furnish the stomach, and the meal will be digested fair 
enough. They will “get by.” This is average health, 
but what we want is the liver and pancreas to leap with 
joy upon that meal and turn it into the finest kind of body 
food that was ever furnished to any human tissues; to 
rejoice in a good job done and then go back and make up 
some more good digestive fluids for the next meal. 

This is health plus. It is to be obtained only by wisely 
following out the best health science we have. This 
includes good vigorous exercise. Exercise, in short, trains 
the whole set of internal organs to do their work better 
than ordinarily well and it permits the delivery of a greater 
amount of work and a better quality ofwork every day of life. 

ORGANIC EXERCISE 

To make the internal organs work and grow strong we 
should select the best exercise for the purpose just as we 


178 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


select the best exercises, Churning and Pumping, as 
abdominal exercises when we wish to massage these organs. 
Now we wish to make them work and it is high time. 

The best exercises for this purpose are like running. 
Running is simple. It does not have to be learned and 
you do not have to use up a great deal of effort in making 
the movement go right as you do in complicated gymnastic 
exercises. All other exercises which are simple, natural 
and easy have this advantage. We get the effects of 
muscular contraction without nerve strain. 

Running also involves large muscle masses. It uses the 
big muscles of the thighs, hips, calves, trunk and shoulders 
as well. Almost fifty per cent of the body weight is 
thrown into activity, oxygen- and food-consuming activ¬ 
ity. No wonder running calls upon the heart and res¬ 
piration so quickly for the distribution of new supplies. 
Movements of the arms alone are poor exercises for this 
purpose; even if they are very rapid and intense they could 
hardly rival running in physiological effect. Large muscle 
masses, therefore, should be used. 

Running is rhythmic. Great muscle masses are con¬ 
tracted and relaxed in constant rhythmic succession. 
There is no more pause than there is in the movement of a 
pendulum. This has a splendid effect upon the muscles 
for it makes each one of them into an active blood pump, 
sucking life-giving fluid into itself and squeezing it out 
again with each contraction and relaxation. Exercises 
which call for the holding of one position for even a few 


PEP STEPS 


179 

seconds interfere with the pumping action of the muscle 
and hinder its nutrition. For this reason they are 
exhausted. In spite of this fact some “systems” of 
physical training actually call for continued tense con¬ 
tractions of the muscles. 

Exercises for physiological stimulation of the organs are 
best of a rhythmic character. For this reason a little 
running is an excellent thing to put into the daily morning 
schedule after the body has been prepared for it. At the 
beginning, thirty-two steps is enough; sixty-four is suffi¬ 
cient for anyone, for it must be remembered that we 
haven’t yet had breakfast and we should not push the 
body too hard. The height of idiocy is exhibited by 
some athletic trainers in taking their athletes out for a run 
before breakfast. More than one man has been damaged 
by vigorous tennis or bicycling before breakfast. Active 
exercise is a daily necessity, but not at the wrong time. 

Running can be varied to make it more vigorous by 
raising the knees high up in front; touching the hands as 
in the knee raising exercise. It can be varied indefinitely 
or it can be made more interesting by changing it into 
rope skipping, which is one of the professional pugilist’s 
favorite ways of getting into condition. But at best, 
running in one’s bedroom is not exactly a joy-producing 
way to start the day. If we can get something that will be 
just as good and have a little fun at it, we can get our 
result and have a good time, too, and we believe thor¬ 
oughly in having a good time. 


180 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


THE DANCE 

What singing is to speaking, what laughter is to breath¬ 
ing, so is dancing to exercise. When there comes sudden 
good news people dance for joy, they dance to celebrate 
great occasions, they dance to express the pent-up vitality 
that unexpected joys bring to the surface. Dancing is an 
expression of bubbling-up happiness coming out through 
the tissues in rhythmic motion. 

Happiness, like other emotions, is never complete until 
it is expressed. We never fully enjoy a joke until we laugh 
at it. We are never really afraid until we turn to run 
away, nor completely despondent until we break down and 
weep. To be happy fully, do the thing that expresses 
happiness and you will get the reward of the thing itself 
rebounding from its own expression. 

For this reason we have turned the run into a simple 
little dance-like exercise beginning quietly and winding 
up in a climax. The Pep Hops were first used, I think, 
in the High School of Commerce in New York City. 
They begin with eight hops on one foot, eight on the 
other, four on one, four on the other, two on one, two on 
the other, and then four running steps to a stop. One has 
a sensation of winding up with a flourish and the final 
stamp of the foot seems to send a thrill up the whole 
spine. 

It can be done to music. If you have no phonograph 
pick out a popular song that fits the rhythm and sing it to 


PEP STEPS 


181 


yourself as you go along. If you get ambitious, do a 
preliminary sixteen counts with each foot before the 
eight. 

The earliest dances that we know anything about were 
developments of the walking run. The American Indians 
of today in some of their dances start by walking slowly 
around the fire; as the music quickens the pace gets faster, 
each foot after it strikes the ground is raised a little in a 
kind of hop, an extra accented beat. Faster still, each 
step has become a double hop: one, two! one, two! one, 
two! This is the elementary Indian dance step. It is 
varied infinitely, sometimes with movements of great 
intensity. 

The Indian step can be used about the room in the 
morning if you wish. Pick up a ruler, turn it into a toma¬ 
hawk and flourish it, scalp if you like in imagination a half 
a dozen pale faces who may become your easy victims 
because they do not take exercise in the morning. 

THE SIDE ROCKER 

The Side Rocker, as described in Chapter IV, is an 
interesting variation of the Indian step which has a charm 
all its own. Begin with two hops on one foot, raising the 
other high to the side. Then change the feet, raising the 
other leg high. When this pendulum gets started it goes 
on by itself and you will have to hold yourself down to 
thirty-two counts. Try one hop instead of two as a 
change and see how you sail along. 




182 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


FORWARD ROCKER 


This is a little bit harder and it will give you something 
to practise. When you learn it you have one of the steps 
of the Irish Lilt, the first folk dance that 





side to side. 


was introduced in the schools of New York 
City and practised by many thousands 
daily as a combination of fun and exercise. 

Position: Raise the right leg in front, 
with the toe neatly pointed. 

1. Displace. Give a little hop in the 

air and at the same time slip the 
right foot into the place where 
the left foot was and raise the left 
foot back , thus “displacing” it. 

2. Hop. Hop on the right foot, the 

left still back in the air. 

3. Displace. Give a little jump in the 

air and swing forward to the first 
position, resting on the left foot 
as you were before with the right 
foot up in the air. 

4. Hop. Hop a little hop on the left 

foot, keeping the right foot in the 
air. 


Now go ahead, rock backward and for¬ 
ward just the way you did the rocking from 
Try it now starting the left foot up in front. 


PEP STEPS 183 

Thirty-two counts. For a change hop only once instead 
of twice on each foot. You will like it. 

SWING STEP 

This is a hop and swing step. Take the same position 
you did for the Forward Rocker, resting on the left foot, 
the right foot up in the air. 

1. Displace. Displace foot backward just 

as you did in the Forward Rocker. 

2. Hop and Swing. Here’s the trick. 

Swing the left foot (now the back 
foot) past the right foot until it is 
way out in front and well raised while 
the right foot is doing a little hop. 

These two counts form a hop and a 
swing. The next two counts are just 
the same only starting left instead of 
right. 

3. Displace. You now find your left foot 

forward. Give a little hop and dis- L 
place the right foot backward. 

4. Hop and Swing. Swing the right foot 

forward as the left foot hops. Repeat 
the hop, swing, hop, swing, and you 
have another happy dancing step 
added to your motor repertoire. 

Thirty-two counts. 

R 

THE IRISH KICK 
In this step you take four hops on one foot while the 
other foot is flirting around and doing stunts. 



184 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 





1. Toe. Hop on the right foot while 

the left toe touches the floor off 
to the side with the heel point¬ 
ing to the sky. You will have to 
turn your body a little bit to get 
the heel way up. 

2. Heel. Hop again and turn the left 

foot with the heel down this time 
where the toe was, and the toe 
now pointing to the sky. 

3. Cross. Hop again on the same foot 

and bring the left foot with the 
heel across the instep of the right 
foot. 

4. Kick. Hop again while you kick the 

left foot toward the sky, three- 
quarters forward,—nor’, nor’ west, 
as a mariner would say. 

Now comes the trick. On the next hop 
you must get the left foot underneath you 
ready for its turn to do four little hops 
while the right foot stretches out to the 
side with the toe pointed down, begin¬ 
ning the first of its four little acts. On the 
next hop, the right heel goes down. On the 
next it comes across the instep and on 
the next it kicks just as the left did. Then 
the left foot has its turn again and again the 
right foot and you have finished sixteen 
counts. 




THE IRISH KICK 
(Count No. i. Toe down 




THE IRISH KICK 
(Count No. 4. The Kick) 

Good fun when you get into the swing of it and really 
dance. It gets into the system and ripples around happily 
all day. 



PEP STEPS 


185 

These little dance steps are enough to start you along 
the line of making up dances for yourself, and you should 
do this as a means of developing your body and giving 
your soul a chance to come out and have a good time. 1 
Enlist the services of your phonograph. You can get folk 
dance records at any store, but best of all make your own 
folk dances. 

THE BREAK 

Here is a little hint: You do not wish to stop every time 
you change from one step to another, so you will use the 
Irish “Break,” an interlude of four counts. Start the 
Break in whatever position you find yourself at the end 
of twelve counts. It has four counts of its own. On the 
first count, jump to the stride position with the feet 
apart about fourteen inches. On the next count jump 
the feet together clicking the heels, on the third hop, swing 
the left foot backward (or the right foot if you have been 
doing a left sided exercise) and on the fourth count 
swing the left foot forward as you hop on the right and 
you will be ready for the start of any other step you wish. 
There is a lot of fun in this and you might just as well get it. 

TESTS 

Everybody should know how strong they are, how 
healthy and how vital. Until recent years we have been 
unable to test physical condition with any degree of 

x Get The Folk Dance Book, A. S. Barnes Co., New York. 


186 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


accuracy. It is true we have listened to the heart, lungs, 
examined a drop of blood to see how much haemoglobin it 
has in it, and we have thumped and listened to the various 
organs to see if they were the proper size and texture, 
but we have not been able to make tests of vitality. At 
first we gauged the measure of a man by putting a tape 
measure around his biceps and his chest. This was known 
as anthropometry, but it was soon found that mere size, 
though significant, was not everything. 

Then we tested the feats of strength and endurance 
such as pulling up on the bar, squeezing and pulling a dy¬ 
namometer, running a mile or more and noting the time. 
These tests went further, but it was inconvenient to half 
kill a man in a tremendous effort or a long endurance test 
to find out how healthy he was. 

BLOOD PTOSIS TEST 

One of the most recent tests that goes to the roots of 
vitality is known as the Blood Ptosis Test. 1 This has been 
referred to before. To be in perfect condition you must 
have a blood pressure from eight to ten points higher on 
standing than it is on lying down, and a heart beat not 
increased any more than four beats to the minute on 
standing. This test has been used for a number of years 
to guide the up-to-date scientific athletic trainer in hand¬ 
ling his athletes. If he knows his men well, by the use of 
this test he can estimate closely how fast they will run, 

1 See references in Appendix. 


PEP STEPS 


187 


how well they will play football or basket ball before the 
hour of the competition, and he can detect at once any 
break in training or the slightest lapse into dissipation. 
Staleness will also show itself. 

In use in the physician’s office the Blood Ptosis Test has 
helped to answer the question “Is the patient really sick 
or is his trouble imaginary?” And during the course of 
treatment, it answers the question “Is the patient really 
making progress toward health as the result of treatment.” 

The average business man is only 60% efficient by this 
test and those who register over 90% are very rare. The 
100% men and women are those who have a good physical 
endowment and know how to keep themselves in good 
condition. They are in possession of good health in great 
abundance. 

This test can be given by any physician you go to for 
your health examination. 1 

PULSE RECOVERY TEST 

There is another test which gives valuable information 
as to the efficiency of the nervous system and the circu¬ 
lation particularly, and this of course means the whole 
body. It tells whether or not you are in training. It is 
known as the Pulse Recovery Test. It consists in doing a 
certain amount of physical work and then noting how 
much the pulse rate rises and how long it takes to get back 
to normal. It is conducted as follows: 

1 See Appendix for Percentage Scale. 


188 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


The pulse rate is taken while standing still. Stretch 
the hands down back of the thighs with the fingers half 
bent; then run in place, the heels touching 
the fingers at each step at the rate of one 
hundred and eighty steps to the minute for 
\\ thirty seconds for Test A and sixty seconds 
1 for Test B. Always try Test A first and do 
l not try Test B until you have a 100% record 

^ in the easy test. 

The physician then with his watch ready counts the 
pulse beat for each five seconds and calls them off to the 
nurse who writes them down. The first five seconds may 
show twelve or thirteen beats (multiply this by twelve 
to get the rate per minute), the second eleven, the third 
ten, the fourth nine, the fifth eight, and so on, gradually 
decreasing until the pulse gets down to its previous rate. 
The body has done its work and has readjusted itself 
again to just the plain simple task of standing. The length 
of time it takes should be less than sixty seconds. Sixty 
seconds gives you 100%. Deduct one per cent for each 
second it takes over the sixty and you have your rating. 
For instance if it takes i minute and 25 seconds for your 
pulse to return to normal your rating is 25 less than 100— 
or 75% • It takes some skill and practice to do this 
accurately even for a physician. It is simple though, 
and tells the story. Perhaps you can do this test yourself 
with the help of two friends. 

But Test A is very easy. It is only for beginners. 


PEP STEPS 


189 

The real test is for a man to run in place for sixty seconds 
instead of thirty and then, if the pulse returns to normal in 
a minute, he can get a 100% rating. This is still a very 
low standard, for an athlete, boxer, wrestler or runner 
in perfect condition will return to normal rate in less 
than twenty-five seconds. 

The tremendously efficient body machinery of the six- 
day bicycle riders was remarkable in this respect. After 
being on their machines grinding out mile after mile for a 
half or three-quarters of an hour, I have taken the pulse 
immediately on stepping from the machine and as a rule 
in less than twenty seconds the pulse rate would fall from 
a hundred and twenty down to fifty-six or sixty, perfect 
evidence of a remarkably efficient piece of vital machinery, 
too specialized, of course, for you or me who do an all¬ 
round kind of day’s work. Naturally these standards do 
not apply to ordinary men in ordinary life. 

It is worth while to check up your condition by both the 
Blood Ptosis and Pulse Recovery Tests. Do not be sur¬ 
prised or disappointed if you measure less than you think. 
Put yourself in training and work your condition up to at 
least 85% or 90% for longevity and happiness follow 
closely upon a high rating. 

CONCLUSION 

Here we have a whole chapter devoted to the training of 
the body by exercise as the man in the street knows it, 
educating the internal organs to do their work well and 


190 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

strongly and equip themselves for a long vigorous life. 
The earlier exercises affected the organic equipment from 
the outside. These last ones make it work. Do not 
imagine that you can do all this in thirty seconds’ work 
in the morning exercise. While these exercises are 
marvelous in their efficiency there is no magic about them. 
To get into condition and keep in condition you need good 
sleep, fresh air, good food, hard work and a clear 
conscience. 

We have now gone through our six morning exercises 
and have reaped all the benefit that we can get by exercis¬ 
ing at this time of day. It remains only for us to put our¬ 
selves in a position that will hold these benefits as long as 
possible. This is done by the next exercise. 




CHAPTER XI 



THE STAR GAZER 

EXERCISE SEVEN 

CONTENTS 

HOW DO YOU STAND? 

COME STATfD? 

ON WHAT DOES GOOD POSTURE DEPEND 

VALUES OF THE STRONG NECK 

THE STAR GAZER 

NECKACHES AND HEADACHES 

NECK FLEXIBILITY EXERCISES 

THE HEN PECK 

RESTRICTED ROTATION 

HEAD PUSH 

THE BRIDGE 

STAND ON YOUR HEAD 

TESTS OF GOOD POSTURE 



CHAPTER XI 



THE STAR GAZER 

HOW DO YOU CARRY YOURSELF? 

11 Comment vous portez vous?” (literally How do you 
carry yourself ?) is the French equivalent of 4 4 How do you 
do?” It as as old as the Latin tongue and an age-long 
recognition of the tradition that human well-being is 
definitely related to human carriage. As a man carries 
himself, so is he. 

44 Come state?” ( 44 How do you stand?”) is the way the 
Italians, the direct descendants of old Rome, put the 
question today. This tradition that the posture of a man 
reveals the well-springs of his health, happiness and 
efficiency is founded upon good biological science. If the 
head is held high, the back straight, the chest up, we know 
that there resides in that man an abundance of vitality 
and power that must be based without question upon good 
health, and must absolutely reveal itself in all that he does 
193 


194 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


and which produces happiness and success. In a woman it 
is shown in the high, splendidly poised head and queenly 
bearing. It may be true that the man who hangs his 
head, whose shoulders droop and depress the chest has a 
splendid vitality, and the young woman with the forward¬ 
poking neck, protruding hips and flapping arms may yet 
be a fine specimen of the human race, but I doubt it and 
so do you. 

Splendid, straight, high, strong, good posture is a sign 
of vitality and efficiency. Moreover, it is a pledge of the 
continuance of these qualities for it is the posture in which 
the body is at its best. It is the posture in which the 
mind thinks most clearly and most effectively, in which the 
soul expands and stretches to its fullest height. 

The 100% man has good posture. 

ON WHAT DOES GOOD POSTURE DEPEND? 

It depends first upon a smoothly working organic 
equipment, well massaged, well toned up by exercise as we 
have seen in the foregoing chapters. Next, it depends 
upon the utter absence of disease; not even the first hidden 
forerunners of disease which sap vitality before the doctors 
can recognize them, can be present. It depends next 
upon a pride in ourselves based upon a knowledge of our 
own dignity and worth, although a few criminals as part 
of their deception have learned to copy the appearance 
of honest men. It depends upon habit and, as we have 
seen, a good deal rests with the abdominal muscles, a firm 





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GOOD AND BAD POSTURE 
A physical training teacher who cannot slump very much. 


THE STAR GAZER 


195 


floor of the vital compartments which must hold up the 
whole organic outfit. Most of all perhaps, good posture 
depends upon a strong neck. 

VALUES OF THE STRONG NECK 

If the muscles of the neck are strong enough to hold the 
cervical spine straight, the back straightens, the ribs are 
raised, the chest cavity is enlarged, the aspiration of the 
thorax increases and all of its resulting benefits accrue as 
we have seen. In the neck are four great arteries which 
bring blood to the brain and nourish it. The two great 
jugular veins return the blood to the chest. The thyroid 
gland is saddled across the front of the neck. It regu¬ 
lates the intensity of our life processes. If it is stimu¬ 
lated, every tissue speeds up and the heart beats rapidly; if 
it is depressed, stagnation of body and mind result. 

Tucked away on either side of the throat, in a fold 
between the larynx and the vertical neck muscles, are 
three pairs of sympathetic nervous ganglia which, with 
the nerve centers in the neck portion of the brain, con¬ 
trol the internal organic operations, respiration, circula¬ 
tion, digestion, secretion. In short, there in the neck are 
the offices of the business management of the whole 
body. 

The neck is indeed an important part of the human 
body. Look at the men you know to be strong and 
successful and see what kinds of necks they have, for necks 
are as characteristic as faces. They tell the story of 


196 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

weakness and power, vitality and illness, past and present, 
and even prophesy what is to come. 

That neck which has fine, strong, muscular pillars on 
either side running from the ears down to the collar-bone, 
and powerful, muscular masses running from the back 
scalp down to the spine—that neck is indeed likely to be 
surmounted with a head worth while in this generation of 
high deeds and great events. 

While the head controls mental operations, the neck 
seems to control or modify all physical operations and 
forms the essential connecting link between the body and 
mind. Thus it holds a place of critical importance. For 
a host of good reasons, physical, mental and psychological, 
a strong neck is a great possession. 

THE STAR GAZER 

Once upon a time we had a thick cord of rubber elastic 
tissue running from the spine back of the neck which held 
the head up. The horse and dog have it yet, as you can 
see if you investigate. When we rose to the upright 
position we lost this ligament almost completely and we 
must now depend upon our muscles to hold our heads up. 
To get muscles that will do the job for the hours of a full 
day’s work we must utilize one of the great axioms of 
physical training hitherto referred to, “Muscles tend to 
stay in the position in which they are exercised.” There¬ 
fore we should exercise the head and neck in the position in 
which we wish them to stay. For this reason the last four 


THE STAR GAZER 


197 


counts of the "Star Gazer/* which has eight counts in all, 
are devoted to exercising the muscles of the neck in the 
shortened position. 

“The Star Gazer” recapitulates the progress of the race. 
It starts with the eyes looking at the ground, with the 
weight of the laboring hands holding the head down. On 
the first four counts this weight is gradually raised and 
pushed back, bringing the face upward toward heaven. 
The whole back tightens and straightens from the neck 
to the hip. The chest is raised, the shoulders settle down 
into their places and there steals through the body a sen¬ 
sation of rising from the ground as if about to soar forward 
and upward. This position is held while all the tissues 
adjust themselves into a splendid harmony in accord 
with each other, life and the universe. 

All of the work of the previous exercises becomes 
assembled into a unified completeness. Body and soul 
unite into one strong, aspiring individuality, instinct with 
power and ready to be launched upon the events and 
labors of the day. 

The first four counts of “The Star Gazer” are necessary 
to provide muscular relaxation and circulation. The last 
four may be devoted to holding the position or to turning 
the head slowly from side to side, as it were observing the 
constellations from Polaris to Orion, or, as a second vari¬ 
ation, bending the trunk gently from side to side. 

This is the last exercise of the series. It is a scientific 
elaboration of a normal movement found in nature. It 


198 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

has many of the elements of the “Stretch” with which the 
series began, developed, however, to far greater power. 

NECKACHES AND HEADACHES 
Headaches are often not in the head at all but in the 
neck. The next time you have a headache, see if a gentle 
massaging of the muscles of the neck, especially where 
they are implanted into the bones of the skull, will not 
change the condition entirely. Follow this up with an 
exercise or two which will change the whole circulation 
of the neck and head and if it is one of a series of a certain 
variety of headaches, it will be relieved. 

NECK FLEXIBILITY EXERCISES 
Necks get stiffened from pain as well as disuse. 

When I was a boy one of the Bible phrases that made a 
great impression on my infant mind was “this wicked and 
stiff-necked generation” and the terrible things that were 
going to happen to them. I wanted to know what a stiff 
neck had to do with wickedness. 

After practising medicine a number of years I com¬ 
menced to find out, for a stiff neck is always the result of 
some physical sinfulness, ignorance or carelessness on the 
part of the owner of the neck. More stiff necks come 
from constipation than from drafts. The stringy, scrawny, 
weak neck of the invalid is the result of years of physical 
neglect, or what is worse, physical coddling. 

Stiff, hard, painful necks must be cured by attention to 



THE HEN PECK (Exercise) 

Reaching for a kernel of com on the right shoulder. Note the 
contraction of the muscles of the neck. While the left side of 
the neck is stretched the right side is compressed and the whole 
neck is massaged and strengthened. 







RESTRICTED ROTATION 


The chin is kept away from the hand and the muscles of 
the back of the neck are exercised in a shortened state to 
make them become short and strong. 




THE STAR GAZER 


199 


the alimentary canal, diet and general exercise as well as 
attention to the neck itself. But the neck will not get 
well unless we limber it up and when it does become 
flexible, lo and behold! we have conferred a blessing upon 
all the rest of the body. 

Here is an exercise that was developed for headache, 
neckache invalids at one of our leading sanitariums by a 
physician who had real insight. 

THE HEN PECK 

The name of this exercise is no reflection upon the 
women who use it. Of course, hen pecking in married 
life is largely the result of pains somewhere in the body 
which find expression in complaints and browbeatings of 
anyone who happens to be near, usually the husband. 
The homeopathist believes that like cures like, and my 
grandfather used to say, “Cure a dog’s bite by taking a 
hair of the dog that bit you.” By the same token you 
might very well cure hen pecking by Hen Pecking. 

Position: Head up, take an imaginary grain of corn 
in the hand and hold it six inches in front of the mouth. 

Make believe that you are a chicken and you want that 
grain of com. Reach out with the head until you can 
pick it up with the lips and bring it in until the neck is 
straight, then look up, stretching the neck and letting 
the grain of com trickle down the throat. So much for 
one grain of corn. 

Take another grain in the fingers and hold it over the 


200 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


right shoulder. Reach for it, pick it up, bring it in and let 
it trickle down the throat to follow its predecessor. 

Next take one off the left shoulder. Keep at it until 
you have swallowed twelve grains of com, each time reach¬ 
ing further and further away as your skill develops. If 
you wish to measure the neck before and after this exer¬ 
cise you will find that if it is too small, it will increase 
slightly in size. If it is too large, this is one of the ways 
of reducing it. 


RESTRICTED ROTATION 

There are many exercises which will loosen up the neck. 
Here is one that not only increases its flexibility but helps 
to stabilize it in its proper erect position. 

Position: Put the fingertips together in front of the 
chin and pull the chin away from them as far as you can 
get it. 

Movement: Make a circle with the chin, going to the 
left, down, right and up as large as you can, keeping as far 
behind the palms of the hands as possible. This will 
strengthen, mobilize and shorten the muscles of the 
neck. 

To those who have never tried these exercises they will 
be a revelation in the number of creaks, kinks, snaps and 
grinds that can come out of an ordinary neck v These are 
all due to weakness and stiffness. For this reason these 
exercises should be done only a few times at first. After¬ 
ward when stiffness and creaking diminish they should be 


THE STAR GAZER 


201 


done from twelve to eighteen times. Then the chances are 
it will be, Goodbye pain, Welcome strength! 

THE HEAD PUSH 

After the neck has had two or three weeks of the light 
exercises given in the Star Gazer, Restricted Rotation and 
Hen Peck, it can meet stronger tests. In the Post Gradu¬ 
ate Hospital one of the quickest ways of developing strong 
necks is the “Head Push.” It needs some accommodating 
sister, brother or husband to help you with this. 

Position: Stand placing the hands 
on the wall, the arms outstretched and 
straight. The attendant places his 
hand on the back of the head (not the 
neck) as you let it come forward and 
downward between the arms. The head 
should not he pushed down; its back¬ 
ward course only should be resisted. 

On the first four counts (just as in the Star Gazer) the 
head is brought slowly backward while the attendant 
presses his hand against it. On the fourth count it is as 
far back as possible and for counts 5, 6, 7 and 8 the posi¬ 
tion is held, pushing the head back against the hand as 
hard as possible and looking at the ceiling. This should 
be repeated from six to eight times. It should be varied 
by turning the head slightly to the left and to the right 
at each alternate eight. 

Again, you can put one hand on the wall and place the 







202 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


head sideways against the resistance of the attendant’s 
hand, thus developing muscles of the side of the neck. 
This is a splendid introduction to the next exercise which 
is one of the most important described in the book. 


THE BRIDGE 


The muscles of every man, woman and child between 
the ages of six and sixty should be strong enough to do the 
Bridge. It is a feat that looks very hard and possibly 
dangerous. If, however, one has practised the foregoing 
exercises faithfully for five minutes a day for two weeks, he 
can feel reasonably safe that he will not even get a stiff 
muscle from his trial of the Bridge. Everyone who seeks 
good health in great abundance should bring himself up to 
the point of trying this, for it opens a new field of interest¬ 
ing and valuable exercises. Moreover, it is good fun to do. 

The Bridge may be approached by easy stages. First 
lay a blanket on the floor or use the bed if you have a good 


hard mattress. Lie down flat, raise 
both hands forward and upward, 
continuing until the thumbs pass 
the ears. Keep going until you 
can lay the palms of the hands flat 



Ready for the Bridge 


on the floor beside the head with the fingertips under 
the shoulders. Next, bring the feet in until they touch 
the buttocks, separated about two feet from each other. 
Now you are in position to take the various steps which 
lead up to the Bridge, each of which is an exercise in itself. 



THE STAR GAZER 


2 <>3 


No. i. Half Bridge. 

Raise the hips. This makes a 
slanting bridge from the shoulders 
to the knees which might be called 
the Half Bridge. 



Half Bridge 


No. 2. Three-Quarter Bridge. 

Raise the hips again and continue raising the shoulders 
so that the body rests on the head, 
the hands and the feet. This is a 
little bit more like the Bridge. It 

might be called the Three-Quarter 
■n • j Three-Quarter Bridge 



No. 3. The Bridge. 

Do the Three-Quarter Bridge, then push the head back 
until you are looking at the opposite wall with the weight 
resting on the top of the head, the hands and the feet. 
This is the Bridge. 

Now go on and develop this exercise, making it harder 
and harder, testing yourself out as you go along and build¬ 
ing a neck that is really worth while. 


No. 4. The Free Bridge. 

This is the position a wrestler takes to prevent his 
shoulders being pressed to the mat when he is thrown on 
his back. Do the Bridge as de¬ 
scribed above and then fold the 
arms across the chest. You are 
resting comfortably on the top of 
the head and on the heels. At first 
when you come down from the Free Bridge it is wise to 
pur Uie hands back into position under the shoulders and 


The Bridge 



204 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


let yourself down slowly. Later you can come down any 
way you like. Try some variations. Rock the head for¬ 
ward and backward and from side to side. 

No. 5. The Rolling Bridge. 

This is an achievement. You might think it is im¬ 
possible for you ever to attain it. You would have been 
encouraged and enthusiastic if you could have seen a 


seven-year-old poor little rich boy 
who had the appearance and consist¬ 
ency of a wet dishrag two months 
previous make himself into a Bridge 
and turn it over into a beautiful 



The Rolling Bridge 


Rolling Bridge again and again before an admiring group 
of his fellow campers. Or perhaps you would have been 
more interested to see a sixty-year-old grandmother who 
had been an invalid for fifteen years, in three months’ 
time develop a Bridge that would have been a credit to 
anyone and in the meantime get back to her energetic, 
go-ahead direction of a half-dozen of her pet charities. 

Unless you are tubercular, half-dead or too fat you can 
(after a physical examination to safeguard you) aspire 
even to the Rolling Bridge in time. 

Position: Do the Bridge with a nice soft place for the 
head. 

Fold the arms, lift the left leg, twist and turn the body 
toward the right until you have turned over completely, 
reversing the Bridge and resting on your forehead and 
your toes. 

This is the Reversed Bridge. Now don’t stop. Con- 



THE THREE-QUARTER BRIDGE 

The proof of a good neck and back, if you can make this bridge 
“roil.” This is not to be attempted until the neck is well trained. 



THE BACK UP 

Preliminary exercise to the head stand giving you an entirely new point of 
view. Get accustomed to it before trying the next stage—the Knee Stand. 






THE STAR GAZER 


205 


tinue in the same way, lifting your right leg, twisting the 
body toward the right until you have turned over again 
and are in the position of the regular Bridge. This is the 
Rolling Bridge. You can keep on going until you have 
walked a complete circle around your own head and when 
you have done this you have graduated with honors in the 
class of physical culture and you have donated to yourself 
an insurance policy which will pay dividends of good 
health, increased efficiency and length of years at the 
cost of a moderate premium of a few minutes a day. 

I am aware of the fact that the fat, the lazy and the 
weak will sit back in their fatness, laziness and weakness 
and say that this exercise is too hard; and with a long, 
grave face state that “this exercise is likely seriously to 
injure the neck.” I personally have taught many 
hundreds of people how to do this and many thousands 
have been taught by my pupils and no injury has resulted 
with the proper preliminary training of other exercises, 
and with the safeguarding of a physician’s examination no 
one can possibly be hurt, and only the greatest improve¬ 
ment can result. 

A strong neck can be used in other exercises. It is a 
great asset for children. Literally, and in perhaps a 
humorous sense, they are less likely to lose their heads. 
They are steadier, better poised and stronger in any 
movement of the body and mind. It will help the lad in 
his wrestling at school and in college. It will help anyone 
to do the set of exercises that follow. 


206 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


THE HEAD STAND 

One of the values of the Camel exercise as described in 
Chapter IX was due to the assumption of the old bio¬ 
logical position with the trunk horizontal. This relieved 
the abdominal organs of the drag of gravity. The same 
advantage was obtained for all the abdominal exercises 
where lying on the back. Recently we have applied the 
principle even further. If it were advantageous to relieve 
the body of the effects of gravity while we were exercising, 
why not get gravity to help us replace the organs which 
have slumped down into the pelvis ? Why not turn the body 
upside down and let them slump up, as it were, into their 
proper places? We have done this in many exercises not 
described here but used medically with beneficial results. 

A strong neck will enable one to put himself into a 
position where gravity will completely reverse the strains 
of the abdomen and the circulatory effects as well. These 
exercises are particularly valuable for any congestion in 
the lower part of the abdomen as well as for ptosis. 

Standing on one’s head looks impossible to the ordinary 
person. Strange to say, not one boy out of five ever learns 
to do it and in the cities not one boy out of ten. I doubt 
if one woman out of a thousand has ever done it. Yet 
within the same limits noted under the Bridge, everyone 
can do it. As in the Bridge, it is important to get the right 
method. The following has been studied out with the 
greatest of care. 




THE KNEE STAND 

Half way to the head stand. Be sure to get the knees 
neatly settled on the elbows; then you can be quite comfort¬ 
able for some time in this position. 




0 



THE HEAD STAND 
A goal for the ambitious seeker after health. 







THE STAR GAZER 


207 


PRELIMINARY EXERCISES 

The first thing you learn seems entirely disconnected 
with the exercise, completely remote from anything like a 
Head Stand. Nevertheless, as I tell my son, “Do it: we 
will discuss it later and you will see how important it is.” 

Now, stand up straight, lean over and take each knee 
cap between the thumb and forefinger. Note especially 
where that thumb rests. Move it around and explore the 
little hollow that you find there. Remember where to find 
this hollow because you will need it later. Now lean 
down further and explore the same hollow with the elbow 
and see how it feels. With this preliminary you are ready 
to start learning the Head Stand. 

1. Kneel down on a heavy blanket with a pillow ten 
inches in front of the knees. 

2. Place the hands just outside the knees and close to 
them. Your natural impulse is to place the hands at 
either side of the pillow. This is the small boy’s mistake. 
It is fatal to success. You will never learn unless the 
hands are placed just right to make with the head a tri¬ 
angular base. 

3. Put the head down on the pillow and get accustomed 
to this position. Come up for air and go down again three 
or four times until you are at home in the semi-inverted 
position. 

4. Keeping the hands and head in exactly the same 
position (where they will remain for the whole Head Stand), 


208 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


raise the knees off the floor, straightening the legs. Hold 
this position a few seconds, then put the knees down again 
and sit up. Practise this two or three times and this is 
usually enough for one lesson. 

5. In the course of the next period of exercise go a little 
further. Put the hands in their proper places by the 
knees, put the head down and raise the knees. Now you 
avail yourself of your preliminary practice. In the 
position in which you find yourself you can see the elbow 
and the knee. Bring the knee of one leg up and place it on 
the elbow, making the elbow fit exactly into the hollow 
that you found for it when you were standing up. Now 
you see why you had to locate it first. Next, “walk” the 
other knee up to its elbow, raise the toes, and you are 
standing on your head and hands with much of the weight 
of the body resting on the knees which of course rest on the 
elbows. This is the Knee Stand. The practice of this 
position two or three times in one period is enough. 

6. At the next period you can go further and do the 
whole Head Stand. Be careful to put the hands in the 
proper places, do the Knee Stand and then slowly raise 
the legs into the air until they are straight. It is best to 
have someone kneeling close behind you with his shoulder 
at your back so that you cannot fall backwards. If there is 
no one handy you can place the pillow close against the 
wall and if you go too far you will simply come up against 
the wall. 

When you first do the Head Stand do not stand up 


THE STAR GAZER 


209 


more than half a second. Come down slowly and try 
to place the knees on the elbows again. Resume the 
upright position by reversing the process: knees down, 
head up, and sit back on the heels. Practise this until 
you are perfectly comfortable in the upright reversed posi¬ 
tion and when you are quite at home in it you can do the 
various exercises which follow: 

No. 1. Walking. 

Make the legs go forward and backward as if walking on 
the sky. This is the inverted Scissors. 

No. 2. Frog Kick. 

Separate the legs and bring them together again. 

No. 3. Scissor Twist. 

Separate the legs and twist the body, rotating the legs 
from side to side. 

No. 4. Head Stand—Knee Elbow. 

This is the hardest of all. Try to bring the left knee 
down to the right elbow. Straighten up again, bring the 
right knee down to the left elbow. 

The standing on the head position has been much used 
by W. Curtis Adams of the Pompton Sanitarium, The 
Adams Place, and also by members of a society who 
devote much of their time and effort to the attainment of 
physical and mental perfection by the study of the doc¬ 
trines of the Far East. 


2io PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


TESTS OF GOOD POSTURE 

Have you 100% posture? How do you carry yourself? 
Does your posture proclaim you to be a 100% man 
or woman ? 

It is worth while to find this out because no man is 100% 
until he has the physical frame which not only reveals but 
supports maximum vitality. There are various compli¬ 
cated machines and tests without end. The best of these 
are the two Wall Tests which measure you against a 
straight vertical line in front and in back. 

THE FRONT WALL TEST 

Place the toes against the wall. Place the hands in 
front of the thighs so that the palms point upward, and 
press them against the wall. The thighs are just a hand’s 
breadth away from the wall but no further. Now the chest 
should touch the wall while the abdomen and the nose 
are from one and a half to three inches away from it. Of 
course if you have a large abdomen and you are in the 
habit of throwing your shoulders back to balance it, you 
can’t do this. If you fail on this test study your archi¬ 
tecture. Be sure to make the thighs press the hands 
against the wall for it is easy enough to cheat by pulling 
the hips back. 


THE BACK WALL TEST 

Place the heels, the shoulders and the head against the 
wall. Now slip the left hand in behind the small of the 



THE FRONT WALL-TEST 


The chest touches the wall; the nose 
and waist-line do not. Note the hand 
which must be pressed to the wall by 
the thigh. 





THE BACK WALL-TEST 


There must be only enough room 
between the hollow of the back and the 
wall for the flattened hand. If there is 
more room than this the hollow must be 
decreased. 
























































































* 









. 






















THE STAR GAZER 


211 


back. If the fit is close you pass the test. If the fit is 
loose, you fail and you must straighten the lumbar spine 
until you can squeeze the hand. Most people can put two 
hand-breadths between the spine and the wall. 

Passing these tests, however, only means that you are 
able to take good posture. It does not mean that you 
keep good posture all the time. Only good vitality, good 
muscles and good habits will give you this. When you 
have arrived at good posture as a habit, with the full force 
of a strong organic equipment smoothly working through 
the twenty-four hours, then you rightly may call yourself 
in 100% condition. 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

The great purpose of the seventh exercise is to consoli¬ 
date the gains made by the use of the previous six exer¬ 
cises. It rounds out, completes and makes the series 
perfect as the number seven itself is perfect. It com¬ 
pletes the cycle of exercises which was introduced by the 
stretch and which follows the development of the natural 
stretch, for the last exercise, the Star Gazer, is its final 
development. 

The whole series have provided for the seeker after good 
health in great abundance a simple, easily understood 
group of exercises with which he can begin and a definite 
set of instructions which will lead him from exercise to ex¬ 
ercise as his strength and prowess increase. In the last 
seven chapters there are exercises from which the weak- 


212 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


est and most feeble can gain profit and others in which the 
strongest of athletes will find a test for his mettle. 

Thus the series of Seven has gone through its gradual 
unfolding as the ancients unfolded the symbol of eternity, 
the circle, into an ever-turning epicycle, the symbol of 
man’s increasing destiny. 




CHAPTER XII 



THE EXERCISE SCHEDULE 

SUMMARY 

CONTENTS 

EXERCISE FOR DAILY LIFE 
DAILY MORNING EXERCISE 
DAILY WALK 
THE WORK-OUT 

THE AFTERNOON OUT-OF-DOORS 


213 


CHAPTER XII 


THE EXERCISE SCHEDULE 
FOR DAILY LIFE 

The body and mind of man were made what they are 
by physical activity and the processes of mind and body 
connected with it. Our ancestors had to catch their 
breakfast before they could eat, and sometimes it was a 
perilous, fighting task. If they did not keep in good 
condition they could neither escape nor conquer. 

Today we have the same bodily frame and organs 
of our fighting ancestors, but today we have all of science 
and the wisdom of the ages to guide us. In working out 
our physical salvation, we will remember with humility 
that we are human and recognize the rules of nature, but 
we shall add everything that modern science can give 
and bring this new wisdom into harmony with the old 
laws of the race. 


215 


216 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


THE STANDARD EXERCISE SCHEDULE 
DAILY MORNING EXERCISE 
7 to 14 minutes daily 

Processes: 

1. Gradual transition of mind and body processes from 

sleep to activity. 

2. Neck and back muscles strengthened and a high head 

and chest obtained. 

3. Abdominal muscles strengthened and toned. Abdomi¬ 

nal auto-massage. 

4. Circulatory stimulation and tissue tonic. 

THE DAILY WALK 
45 Minutes Daily 

Processes: 

1. Fresh Air. 

2. Moderate stimulation of the circulation and effect upon 

the internal organs. 

3. Mental and nervous regulation. 

4. Recreation; mental rhythmatizing and regulation. 

THE WORK-OUT 

45 Minutes to one hour; two or three times a week in a 
lively game or horseback, etc. 

Processes: 

1. Vigorous stimulation of the heart and arteries, increas¬ 

ing their strength and muscular power. 

2. Vigorous tissue and organic massage; increase in metab¬ 

olism and developing margin of power. 


THE EXERCISE SCHEDULE 217 

3. Having a good time, renewing youth and companion¬ 

ship. 

4. Perspiration. 

THE AFTERNOON OUT-OF-DOORS 
Golf or its Equivalent 

Processes: 

1. Fresh Air. 

2. Moderate, long-continued circulatory activity and 

tissue reaction; development of endurance. 

3. Increase in metabolism and stimulation of the in¬ 

testinal tract; appetite. 

4. Mental refreshment and normalcy under normal condi¬ 

tions—in the out-of-doors. 

5. Game interest, recreation and companionship. 

The foregoing schedule gives the standard for the 
adult, average man. For the woman the Work-out should 
be modified, and for the man over sixty as well. In fact, 
the exercise program should be thought out, adjusted and 
applied individually to the individual needs for everyone. 
This standard, however, if adhered to throughout a life¬ 
time, will bring the best results and rewards in Health, 
Happiness and Efficiency. If it cannot be followed in its 
entirety (and we must admit that there are some, who for 
various reasons cannot follow it out), then there is so much 
loss and lack of result. 

Every man should work out his own program. 

No one should omit any part of this schedule without 


218 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


due cause, for he will be assured that he is depriving 
himself of fun, profit and years. He should first of course 
enlist the services of his family physician, with the health 
point of view. If he knows of no such person, he should 
find one. Next he should make this a family matter, 
going over the problem with his immediate family. He 
should assay the resources of his community, consult with 
his friends and plan his life intelligently and wisely. Each 
one of the items in the exercise program deserves a volume 
on the subject, but this book is devoted mainly to the first 
item “Daily Exercise,” the minimum essential which gives 
greatest returns for the least time and trouble expended. 




CHAPTER XIII 



WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 

CONTENTS 

“ONE MAN’S MEAT—’’ 

THREE TYPES OP MEN 

ROCK McLEAN, THE CORPORATION MAKER 
THE INSIDE JOB 
THE LABORER’S WEAKNESS 
THREE TYPES OF WOMEN 
THE WOMAN EXECUTIVE 
SHOP SITTERS AND THE WORKER’S SET-UP 
THE TWENTY-FOUR HOUR JOB 
BACKACHE 
CHILDHOOD 

SCHOOL SCORE CARD FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING 
SCHOOL EXERCISES 


219 



CHAPTER XIII 



WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 

A young man of twenty-five came into the doctor’s 
office complaining of just a “general kind of weakness,” 
and being ‘ ‘ run-down. ’ ’ In fact, he had always been puny 
but now he was thinking of getting married and had to get 
a raise, but “his boss didn’t see it that way and wanted 
him to show some action.” The physician put him 
through the usual tests and discovered nothing wrong. 
Yet something certainly was wrong with the man, even if 
his heart and lungs passed ordinary inspection. The 
physician was an up-to-date specialist on constitutional 
diseases and had the health viewpoint, so he went further. 
He took out a set of tiny flasks each containing the extract 
of some ordinary article of diet. Making little scratches 
on the patient’s forearm, he put on each a minute portion 
of food extract. Nothing happened until after twenty 
minutes when one of the little scratches commenced to 
swell and became a large white mass. It was perfectly 


221 


222 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


clear that the particles of this particular kind of food 
caused a disturbance. In fact, it acted as a poison. 

In this case it was a particle of oatmeal that caused the 
reaction and it was by this means that the physician dis¬ 
covered that the young man was one of those rare persons 
who had been poisoning himself by eating oatmeal faith¬ 
fully from his boyhood up. With this article removed 
from his diet, and with a good exercise program, he became 
strong and well. (Yes—he got his raise, married and is 
living happily ever after.) 

“ONE MAN’S MEAT ” 

Truly one man’s meat is another man’s poison. It is 
the same with exercise. Exercises as we have seen are 
very different in their effects and are good for different 
kinds of people. You should find out just what kind of 
exercise you really need. You should first get a thorough 
going-over by your health physician, and then put yourself 
under the care of a good physical trainer in a Y. M. C. A., 
a school or club. In default of this you should get a good 
book and study the matter out for yourself. You will not 
merely do the exercises that are good for most people. 
You can do what is best for yourself, getting the results in 
strength and good health that you want without wasting 
time and energy on exercise that is good for nine out of ten 
people but not good for you. You need not put up with 
what is second-best. You can get the best. 

Of course there are exercises which are good on the 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 223 


average for a million average people, for everyone is still 
human, but everyone of these million would be better off if 
some personal variation were made to suit his own needs. 
Of course I cannot give you each an individual health 
examination and a personal prescription, but I can take 
seven typical people as examples and let them serve to 
guide you. 


EXAMPLES 


Men 

1. The Executive; middle- 
aged brainworker; professor; 
manager; artist. 

2. The clerk , the young 
man in a white collar job, 
salesman, teacher, book¬ 
keeper. 

3. The laborer , the man 
who does a day’s work with 
his muscles as well as his 
brains; the machinist. 


Women 

1. The business woman; 
executive; writer, worker, 
artist, singer. 

2. The typist , stenog¬ 
rapher, clerk, saleswoman. 


3. The housewife , whose 
work is never done and who 
puts in a twenty-four hour 
day. 


ROCK McLEAN, THE CORPORATION MAKER 

Take for instance a typical Big City executive, Rock 
McLean, the famous corporation maker. He was a 
country boy born on the coast of Maine sixty-four years 
ago. His constitution is as strong as the spruce from 
which aeroplane propellers are made and just as the spruce 
leaves its native soil to drive through many a tempest, so 
McLean, a boy of 14, left his home in Maine and plunged 
into the whirlpool of the metropolis. 


224 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

He never stopped to play. He worked every waking 
moment. He was a good example of the copybook vir¬ 
tues of fifty years ago, industry, thrift, honesty, and some 
of our so-called up-to-date qualities—push, progress and 
power. He climbed into a position of responsibility, he 
formed a corporation, led another and then linked a 
dozen more into a huge combination with himself as the 
master link. 

But he never had any time for exercise. It seemed 
foolish. He was strong. He had a constitution that had 
been toughened by centuries of clean living and hard, 
muscular work. He was a biological millionaire. But he 
spent his vitality as he made his dollars. He earned his 
millions but he paid for them. 

He was quite impressive to look at when he was fully 
clothed, but when you got down to McLean himself he did 
not look like a million dollars. He looked like a million 
others. His rugged frame was hung with soft, aristocratic 
white meat. His shoulders were thrown back but his 
abdomen was thrown forward. His chest was large but it 
hardly moved with his breathing,—a stiff, tight, bony cage. 
His heart was a trifle large, his arteries a bit stiff, his blood 
sagged down into his abdomen and left him weak. His 
only good muscles were those of his jaw and his grip. 

He was in danger. His heart, arteries and kidneys 
were slowly giving way, disability, disease and death were 
stealthily creeping upon him. 

If this man is you, take heed. You can save yourself 


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WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 225 


real misery, you can postpone the evil days and put off for 
many years the hour of final departure if you take action— 
prompt action. 

McLean took action. He plunged into his get-strong 
program with the same consummate directness that had 
always given him victory. And he intended to win again. 
He did. His program was somewhat like the following 
which I have sketched out for you. 

Of course you should receive a thorough medical and 
physical examination and follow your physician’s advice. 
Fill out the pages of tests and measurements in this book. 
You need to start with the simple seven exercises of Chap¬ 
ter IV. Repeat them at night. Do this for two weeks. 

Now double the Pumping and Churning exercises, 
Nos. 2 and 4. Add three round trips of N-E-W-S to the 
Tickle Toe and do three of the Leg Raising Triad. This is 
the end of the fourth week. Measure the chest and the 
abdomen again. You should have gained a half-inch in 
expansion of the chest and an inch in the contraction of 
the abdomen. 

In the sixth week, if you don’t puff at all with the 
Pep Hops, you can double them, starting with sixteen. 

In the eighth week put in the Bicycle twenty times. 
Next add either Knee Raising (standing) or Kicking six 
times apiece. 

You have now about reached the limit of the physio¬ 
logical work that you should do morning and evening, and 
you should not exceed it. What you are now doing is 


226 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


just about the speed that you will wish to keep up. You 
can vary the exercises if you like, putting in the Scissors 
instead of the Bicycle, changing the Stretch into the Sky 
Lift. After you get your neck in good condition you can 
learn the Half Bridge or perhaps the Bridge. 

Measure yourself at the end of each week and do not 
stop until you get your chest expansion up to three and a 
half inches and the circumference of the chest at least 
three inches greater than the circumference of the 
abdomen. 

You need a maximum of massage exercises, Pumping, 
Churning, the Sigmoid-Appendix Special; Knee Raising 
and Tickle Toe are your especial pets. Be very guarded 
in your use of the Pep Hops, Bicycle and Scissors. A little 
is very necessary—too much is bad. Don’t go past the 
puffing point. If you do, stop, breathe, and change the 
exercise to a slow Churning. Always wind up with three 
quiet, satisfactory Star Gazers. 

Don’t make the mistake that one of the best executives 
in the big city did. He could run a business but he 
could not rim himself. 

He got so much good from the moderate exercise I 
prescribed for him that he doubled the number of times, 
overtaxed his strength and slipped back. He then got 
disgusted with all exercises and like a spoiled child, he 
stopped everything. He is back again now on a sensible 
schedule and he has learned not only how to start but how 
to quit. 


WHAL EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 227 


THE INSIDE JOB 

There are half a million of us in New York City, Boston, 
Philadelphia and Chicago, to say nothing of Fort Wayne, 
Louisville, Ogden, Seattle and all points to East and West 
—the men between the ages of 25 and 35 doing a white 
collar job eight hours or more a day, every day. As the 
years go by, we go on up, or stick where we are, or go slowly 
down and out. This decade after 25 is a period of struggle 
and fight to get ahead for the earnest young man. Of 
course there are others who are carefree and take things 
as they come, instead of making them go. 

But weak or strong, married or single, sick or sturdy, 
we are all using up the years and putting youth behind us. 
The heritage of power that we possess at birth is dimin¬ 
ishing ; there is so much left that we do not notice the loss. 
We will later. 

This decade sets the cement, for the years after 45, 
and determines the kind of physique that a man will have 
in middle age or later. These are the years that will wear 
a man down or they can be used to build him up and 
solidify him in fine, manly vigor. Preserve them—use 
them! 

Of course we know all this; every generation of young 
men has heard the same advice. Twenty-five hundred 
years ago old Solomon said: “Remember now thy 
Creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come 
not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say—I have 
no pleasure in them.” Since Solomon’s time and before, 


228 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


the wise young man takes heed and reaps the benefit. 
Exercise is one of the things he does. 

You need the Simple Seven every one of the seven days 
in the week, no matter how little sleep you get the night 
before or how you feel about it. It will clear the head 
and set the body on its feet. Seven minutes’ work is 
worth seventy minutes’ sleep. Go through your tests 
and find out where you stand. Make a careful record, 
find out your deficiencies, correct them and then make 
yourself a little better. Make pumping and churning 
your life-long friends. Develop a mobility of chest 
and abdomen that means organic soundness. Work 
with the Leg-Raising Triad, the Bicycle and Scissors until 
you can do the “L” test a full twenty seconds. Learn all 
the Pep Hops and dance steps I have given you and then 
do them with a skipping-rope. 

Here is a young man’s program. Put yourself into 
training. Go into a gymnasium, box, wrestle, play hand¬ 
ball, learn basketball and keep it up. Two evenings a 
week is not too much to spend on this kind of thing, 
especially if you can get it in between 5.30 and 6.30 in 
some convenient gymnasium. Swim; learn the crawl 
stroke and trudgeon, the angel, the front and back jacks. 
All of these belong to young manhood and help to make it 
and keep it. Get out-of-doors all you can. Remember 
your Boy Scout days and put your training into actual 
practice. Have your own camp for Saturdays and Sun¬ 
days and for your vacation. 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 229 

Above all, develop your own system of morning exercises. 
Invent variations of your own. 

If you are married at twenty-five, as you should be, see 
that your wife keeps in good bodily condition also, and 
when the children come along start them exercising as soon 
as they can walk. 

THE LABORER’S WEAKNESS 

“ Exercise? Don’t talk to me about exercise. You do 
the day’s work I do and you will have exercise enough 
and to spare. What I need is rest and recreation.” 

Right! Brother, that is natural and true as far as it 
goes—but Science has some good news for you if you will 
listen. 

Work is different from exercise. Work consists in 
doing the same things over and over again, until the 
muscles are tired out and the body is used up. Work does 
not build up muscles beyond a certain point. It wears down 
muscles and makes them fibrous gradually driving the life 
out of them. Parts of the body that are little used be¬ 
come just as weak and as flabby from neglect as the capi¬ 
talist’s body. Some parts of the body you overwork— 
other parts are hardly used at all. Now make the unused 
parts of the body refresh the tired parts. 

A laboring man came into the hospital clinic, his arms, 
shoulders and legs hard as rocks—but his chest was 
hollow and his abdomen bulging. If work was all that 
was necessary to keep him healthy and make him strong, 


230 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


he should have been a Hercules—but on the contrary he 
was used up and sick. 

Work is not exercise. Work tears down, exercise 
builds up. Exercise trains the unused and weakened 
portions of the body and makes them strong. What the 
machinist needs most is exercise for the abdominal wall 
and the chest. His special pets should be the Lying- 
Down Abdominal Series, Leg Raising Triad; Bicycle; 
Scissors and Double Scissors; and the Star Gazing series. 
He does not need to take exercise to give him an appetite 
or to stimulate the heart and lungs. If he is a very hard 
worker he doesn’t need any stimulation of the internal 
organs. In fact, he needs rest when he can get it. 

Sometimes, however, laborers do little actual, heavy, 
fast work, and their hearts are capable of just so much and 
no more. Although they can work all day, they cannot 
run a hundred yards for a car. 

You need the waking-up exercises every morning, 
Mister Laborer and Brother Machinist. Get up and 
stretch, then stretch some more; stretch all the way 
through the seven exercises. If you are so strong, do a 
little shadow boxing instead of the Pep Hops. If you 
have a chest expansion of four inches, well enough. Keep 
it there. If you can do all the abdominal tests including 
the “L” for thirty seconds, keep it up. If you are full of 
pep, don’t lose it! 

Where do you stand on these tests? Perhaps you are 
a wonder for strength,—perhaps not. Find out! 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 231 


You need the gymnasium just as much as your white- 
collared brother for the purpose of having a good time and 
developing a margin. You can beat him at boxing, 
running, jumping, handball and basketball, so have a good 
time, do these things and enjoy them. When Sunday 
comes get off for a ten-mile hike. If it is winter, put your 
skates over your shoulder and seek out a river, and skate 
a dozen miles or so. If there is snow on the river it is 
on the hills too, club together with some other good 
fellows, get a bobsled, or learn to slide along on skis. 
It is a great sport. All the college boys are doing it and 
there is fun in it: we might just as well have ours, too. 

Start every day with a Star Gazer. Go through it with 
your head up and get your eight hours of rest and sleep— 
at night . 


THE WOMAN EXECUTIVE 

In the past the work of the world was done by big 
muscles, stout hearts and keen minds. Machinery takes 
the place of muscles, for big muscles are out of date. 
Therefore Woman can take her place in the ranks of the 
leaders, and she does so with increasing frequency. But 
the burdens of intellectual achievement are frequently 
carried on narrow shoulders, supported insecurely by a 
weak and sensitive bodily mechanism. 

Only the physically strong women make good. They 
have broad chests and their sub-costal angles are over 
ninety degrees. The weaker women remain in places of 


232 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


mediocrity. They lack physical drive. The successful 
woman has a good body either by inheritance, culture, or 
both. Many, however, start their careers with great 
promise only to crash in their thirties, and a light which 
gave hope of guiding the nations, flickers, grows dim and 
goes out. They are the artists, writers, singers, managers, 
heads of departments, the school principals, superin¬ 
tendents and directors, who succeed for a while and then 
slowly or suddenly fail—and the world is robbed of their 
ripened service which should be increasingly powerful for 
many a fruitful year. When they break down they receive 
much sympathy—but that is all. They get little credit 
and the world goes on. 

This is unnecessary. 

The successful woman of the fine, progressive type 
needs to realize that she can have a possession and an 
ally in her body—for vitality is capital, weakness an 
expense. 

You need, oh! how you need, the whole series of the 
Seven Exercises morning and night. Your exercise wants 
are in the main very much like those of the man executive. 
You should emphasize abdominal massage movements 
and guard against overdoing the physiological exercises. 
Reversed breathing and packing are your inspirational 
exercise. They develop power. Pumping and Churning 
are life savers. They clean the system and restore vitality. 
They fight against your arch enemy, constipation and 
abdominal stagnation. You should re-read and learn by 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 233 


heart the chapters devoted to the abdominal muscles and 
practice both the lying-down and standing-up varieties. 
You should develop a splendid pair of natural corsets and 
keep them in good repair. 

If our women leaders should be superb physical speci¬ 
mens of womanhood, able to run, climb, swim and play 
vigorous games, their leadership would increase in strength 
and influence. Think of the woman school principal 
with twenty teachers and five hundred pupils, or the 
woman executive dealing with hundreds of persons daily. 
What will be the effect of a regime backed up with a nar¬ 
row chest, sallow complexion and lazy colon, compared 
with the influence of the woman with clean, rosy skin, 
clear eye, a high head and a perfect digestion, to support 
her serene, effective personality. 

The woman of influence must have as a foundation 
the best body that she and nature can produce. Your 
program must include the daily walk of forty-five minutes 
or more. The fussy, quick steps around the office, shop or 
studio will not suffice, nor will standing at your work 
replace it. Quite the reverse. The tense, tired muscles 
can only be loosened up by long, swinging strides, and 
plenty of them. 

You need play and you must find a game or a sport 
which will take you out into the open, winter, spring, 
summer and fall. Let it be tennis, golf, swimming, skat¬ 
ing, horseback riding, hiking or canoeing, or better yet 
use each in turn. 


234 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


You need to dance, but not social dances alone. You 
can not afford to miss the stimulation of the dances which 
bring out the spirit and exercise it as the body itself is 
exercised. Start with the Pep Steps and develop your 
own simple dances and rhythms. Search out someone 
who can carry you further for there are many delightful 
studios with skilled, artistic teachers to serve you. 

You are the New Woman. You are making a New 
world. See to it that you bring to this new world the 
strongest and most wholesome equipment of body, mind 
and soul that a woman can produce. 

THE WOMAN WORKER 

We are the millions of women who do the every day work 
of the world. 

We type the clouds of daily flying letters which fly to the 
comers of the earth and carry the business of nations. 

We keep account and record of the little steps in the 
great moving progress of the world. 

Under our flying fingers thread is turned to cloth, and 
cloth to garments which clothe and ornament the 
bodies of humankind. 

We carry the stored-up knowledge and wisdom of the ages 
to the growing minds of the children. We are the 
liaison officers between this generation and the next. 

We do the huge, ever-growing daily detail tasks which 
make toward the great perfections of human affairs. 

We are the Women who Work. 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 


235 


But 1/ the truth must be told, to our own bodies we 
seldom give a thought. We eat what we fancy; we drink 
what we enjoy. We rest hardly ever and we sleep when 
there is nothing else to do; though we dress and take care 
of our outside appearance very creditably. Thank 
you! 

But why should we be concerned about our health so 
long as we have no real pain? Why should we exercise 
when we have to get up and rush to work and at night, 
the end of the day, we are tired enough. 


Listen to me and I will tell you “why” for I want you 
to be happy as much as you can, healthy as long as possible 
and as successful as you wish to be. 

You sit still too much. Your back is weak and sensitive. 
It aches easily. Your neck is weak and tires as it feels 
the drag of the day at three o’clock. Your chest is too 
narrow. The sub-costal angle is too small. Your breath¬ 
ing capacity is insignificant. Your abdominal wall is lax 
and flabby. Your nerves nag. You are constipated, you 
have the laxative habit. Headaches are entirely too 
frequent. Your skin is likely to be unhealthy and there 
are perhaps other undercurrents of similar illnesses 
also. 

How near the truth is this for you? 

How many of these burdens do you needlessly carry? 

How long do you intend to let them sap your strength 


236 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

and dim your happiness, and store up real trouble for 
you? 

Find out what your condition is. Test yourself and 
get a thorough health examination from a competent 
health doctor. Work out your exercise schedule and stick 
to it. 

THE SHOP SITTERS 

Do you sit still too much? 

You should have a Two-Minute Setting-Up Exercise 
in your office or factory at half past ten in the morning 
and at half past three in the afternoon. If you do not have 
this, get a committee together and see the manager. Get 
a good set of exercises and whip it through. If you are 
on piece work, watch how much better and faster your 
work will be afterward. Do not take my word for it. 
Test it for yourself. If it comes out of the employer’s 
time, test it again and make a demonstration. It has 
worked with others—it will work with you. 

HOW TO CARRY ON A SHOP SET-UP 

Select a good leader from among you; one with a good 
voice and a vivid, buoyant personality. Get him trained 
in the exercises and then trained to “put them over.” 
Have an alarm clock set for the exact time. 

Here is a good set of exercises for the average shop, 
workroom or office: 

When the alarm clock goes off the leader calls out 

‘ ‘ For Exercise! Get ready! ’ * 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 237 


The machines stop, the work is laid aside and the whole 
place is quiet. 


Exercise No. 1. Packing 

Still sitting in your place, the leader calls: 

4 ‘ Hands on hips—place! ’ ’ 

I. Lift the chest—full breath! 

Fuller! Pack it in! More! More! (3 Packs) 
Now breathe out slowly. 

II. Again, breathe in! Pack! Pack! 

More! More! More! (5 Packs) 

Hold it while I count four! 

(He counts slowly—one! two! three! four!) 

Out—slowly—chest up. 

III. Breathing! Once more! 

Fillup! Fuller! Up! Four packs more! 

1—2—3—4! (7 Packs) 

Hold it to six counts! 

1—2—3—4—5—6! 

Breathe out slowly and keep the chest up! 

Exercise No. 2. The Stretch 
The leader calls: 

Stand up! Now for a good stretch! 

Hands on shoulder—Place! 

Fists tight! Full breath! Fuller! 

Stretch the right arm up and the left arm down! 

S—T—R—E—T—C—H !!! 


238 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

This is the regular morning stretch, only it is taken 
standing up. 

Take another good stretch—give the left arm a chance 
up in the air. 

Exercise No. 3. Trunk Bending. N. E. W. S. 
Hands on hips—Place! 

Trunk bending front and back and right and left! 

The leader raises his arm, waves it front, back, right and 
left; with big, broad swings to get big swinging trunk 
movements in the group. 

This is the N. E. W. S. Exercise and it gets right down 
to the middle of things. 

Do it four times around the four points of the compass. 

Exercise No. 4. Trunk Circling 

Now let us take a trip around the world. 

Make a great circle with the trunk, starting forward, 
circling right and back, left and front again . Four 
times. 

Circle to the right! Four times! 

Circle to the left! Four times! 

Make them big! 

Exercise No. 5. The Star Gazer 

“Now then, get that head up! The chest high and 
the back straightened out in a position of power.” 

Clasp the hands behind the head! 

Pull the head down on one! 

Raise it on two! 




WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 239 

Look at the sky on three! 

Try to look at the back of your head on four! 

Turn the head to the right on five! 

Turn the head to the left on six! 

Right and left again on seven and eight! 

Repeat four times, 

Always keep the eyes on your particular lucky star high 
in the sky, for you can always see it right through the 
ceiling, the roof and the clouds themselves—if you look 
up. 

Do the Star Gazer four times and you are through. 


You are stimulated, refreshed and placed in the posture 
of efficiency and power. 

Now back to work and make it fly! 

When you sit down settle yourself as far back as you 
can on the seat. Press your lower back against the 
back of the chair. When you lean forward if you must, 
keep that back straight and the chest high. Try not to 
slump. 

If you have strong enough corsets under the skin and a 
well-exercised back and neck you can do this. If you 
have not developed these, get them. In the meantime see 
that the lower abdomen is properly supported. Read 
over the chapter on this subject and apply it directly 
to your own case. 


240 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


SPECIAL INDICATIONS 

If you have a tired neck, specialize on the “Hen Peck,” 
“Chin Circling,” “Restricted Rotation” and the “Star 
Gazer.” Work on the ‘ ‘ Bridge ” until you get it. 

If you have a little, narrow chest and a sub-costal angle 
of less than ninety degrees, specialize on breathing, pack¬ 
ing, pumping and even reversed breathing until you get a 
greater power of inspiration with all the benefits that come 
from it. 

Is the abdominal wall weak and slack? Tuck it in 
and tighten it up. Use the abdominal exercises, first the 
lying-down Knee Raising and Leg Raising Triad and 
Scissors. Later take the standing-up Knee Raising, 
Kicking and Tickle Toe. 

Is your, complexion sallow ? Have you headaches ? 
Are there recurrent periods of unnecessary pain? Start 
Churning—and add the magic of the East to the science 
of today. 

Are you nervous and irritable? Build yourself a 
strong, calm trunk as solid as the sturdy and graceful elm 
and you will feel rooted in the solid earth, with your head 
serenely raised high to the light of the sun. 

All this that I have said relates to indoor exercise at 
your home and at your work. Remember that you are 
really an outdoor person and see to it that you get your 
full share of sunshine, fresh air, walking, hiking and 
vigorous, active games. 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 


241 


THE TWENTY-FOUR HOUR JOB 
THE HOUSEWIFE 

You have the biggest and best job in all the world. You 
make the home. 

You are your husband’s happiness, his guide, counsellor, 
friend and support in times of strain and discouragement. 
You lift the burdens of labor from his shoulders in the 
evening and bring him rest. 

You start him out to the world of work in the morning 
with courage and strength. 

You and only you can bear children, the mysterious 
compound of you and your mate. You and he live on 
again in them to people the earth and fulfill its great 
destiny. 

Your labor and responsibility are great, but you have 
aid. You have the power and all the heritage of the 
unbroken series of many, many generations of mothers. 
They guide and counsel you, they color your feelings, direct 
your thoughts and support your purposes. Through you 
and only through you pass their gifts,—the gifts of the 
ages, for the ages to come. You are the earthly deputies 
of the Almighty for the destinies of mankind are cradled 
in your arms. 

Great successes are made of details,—many of them. 
Your day is full of them. They begin with your break¬ 
fast, continue with the dressing and starting of the house- 


242 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


hold, and end with the getting of everyone to bed, with the 
hope that rest may be unbroken. 

If your husband is ill, your work and worry are doubled, 
and your rest dimished. If the children are ill, your care 
and labor are multiplied. 

Truly no one is so dependent upon health for her 
happiness as are you, yet no one profits so greatly 
if all the household have Good Health in Great Abun¬ 
dance. 

You are the Guardian of the Health of the Home. If 
you see to it that the morning exercises are done, they 
will be done, probably not otherwise; so plan the minutes 
of the morning from the time the alarm clock stops until 
the husband gets his good-by kiss at the door. 

Make the daily exercise a family function, but above 
all be sure that you get in the exercises that are best for 
you. If I had planned the Seven Standard Exercises for 
you alone I could not have fitted your needs more exactly. 
You need the stretching, the deep breathing, the ab¬ 
dominal massage and strong abdominal muscles. Most 
of all you need abdominal exercises. Constipation is 
your foe, laxatives your false friends, Pumping and 
Churning your faithful aides. Knee Raising, Leg Raising, 
the Appendix Sigmoid Special are of greatest value. The 
Camel is the best type of Churning for you for it puts the 
uterus in its old biological position, hanging downward 
from its attachment, instead of pushed down in the pelvis 
and crowded upon by all other abdominal organs, as in 



THE HOUSEWIFE 

As she should look, and we trust, 
shall always be—capable, strong, 
erect. 


THE HOUSEWIFE 


As she often feels. Tired, weak, 
downcast. Note the wrinkles in the 
costume. There are more wrinkles 
inside. 













WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 243 

the upright posture. The position on the hands and 
knees in which the Camel is taken relieves it from all 
pressures and congestion. This exercise alone has been 
of greatest benefit to many cases of dysmenorrhoea and 
has removed from many lives hours of distress and dis¬ 
ability. 


BACKACHE 

Backache comes in various evil forms—between the 
shoulders and at the base of the neck it is usually the re¬ 
sult of long continued strains of body and nerves. The 
Star Gazer, Hen Pecking and Tickle Toe will do much 
to relieve it. 

Backache across the lower part of the back is most 
frequently due to abdominal, especially uterine con¬ 
gestion for which the Camel has most beneficent effects. 

The housewife of all the people in the world should 
know how to organize her labor and know how to rest. 
Certain tasks are done over and over again, every day of 
the year and it would seem as if mere repetition would 
lead to development of labor-saving economies in time and 
trouble. There are ways of washing dishes, and making 
beds which are simple and effective. These details take 
up a great deal of time and energy. They should be 
studied. A good home magazine will always have many 
helpful hints. 

One counsel I can give you that will help every moment 
of the day. Make the back strong and keep it straight 


244 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


whether you are sitting, standing or working. Take 
your exercises until they have made you one solid, unit of 
flesh, bone and vitality that doesn’t crumple up. If you 
feel that you must crumple up, crumple down instead. Lie 
down flat for sixty seconds, right on the floor, or on a hard 
couch without a pillow. Take two or three long breaths 
and five or six “pumps,” then you can relax and close 
your eyes for sixty seconds more. This is the Two-Mim 
ute Drill for the housewife which should be taken just 
as often as she needs it. 

The best times to take the Two-Minute Drill are after 
everybody has gone to work or to school, before you turn 
to the housework. The next time is when you have 
finished the housework and you are about to tidy yourself 
up to go to market. Two minutes here will make market¬ 
ing a far more successful and happy time. The next time 
you rest it should be longer than two minutes. It comes 
after lunch when the little ones get their rest time. 
Mother should get her rest hour too. If you cannot 
relax try deep breathing and pumping until you do. 
Another moment of rest when you have dinner on, the 
table set and you are waiting for the man of the house to 
turn the key in the lock. Lie down, relax and give your 
soul and spirit a chance to well up and it will come out in a 
smile and a kiss that will give happiness to both of those 
who are most concerned. This is the way to start the 
evening, the best part of the day. 

To finish up the day before going to bed with a few 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 245 


vigorous trunk exercises, take the final kinks out of the 
neck with the Star Gazer and you will go to the land of 
dreams. 

Don’t tell me that you have no time to do these things. 
You have no time to omit them for if you do you will be 
forced to give up a great deal more time for real illness, 
discomfort and disability. Moreover a woman’s great 
privilege (if it is not a duty) is to be beautiful. You were 
beautiful in the eyes of your husband in the days of court¬ 
ship. You can be beautiful for all the days of your life if 
your body is strong, if you keep it trim and do not slump, 
and you will have the charm of wholesomeness, which can 
fade only with illness or neglect. 

CHILDHOOD 

You can see the fingerprints of the years in the bodies 
of grown-up men and women. Here on the chest wall are 
the signs of a period of malnutrition. There in the set of 
the shoulders the story of long-ago attacks of childhood 
asthma. The sounds of the heart and lungs tell of the 
damages and partial repairs that the body has met in 
successful warfare against illness. 

Round shoulders, hollow chests and bulging abdomens, 
tell the tales of neglect by parents and by schools. A 
straight back, high head, large chest and taut abdomen 
give permanent testimony to the wisdom and energy of 
wise parents and good schools. 

Within certain limits you can make your children’s 


246 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

bodies what you want them to be. You can do this best 
while the human frame is soft and pliable. Get in your 
good work while it is hardening. Play the part of sculptor 
and help God make a man. 

Make the morning exercise a family affair. Take the 
evening period and the getting of the children to bed, 
often a troublesome task, and make it an occasion for a 
jolly good time. The children are ready for a romp, but 
too often it becomes hectic and excited, and the difficulty 
in getting little ones out of bed the next day may be due 
to the nervous tensions of the previous evening. Make 
your evening exercise absorb the restless nervousness 
which makes children lie awake and disturb the evening of 
the family. 

‘‘Mother, can I have a drink of water?” 

“John, if I have to come up to you, you will wish I had 
not!”—etc., etc., with a hundred variations. Slow 
Pumping will quiet the nerves and the circulation, especi¬ 
ally if it is taken after vigorous Bicycling and Scissors 
or Double Scissors. Children will learn the exercises more 
rapidly than you will. They like to try stunts. They 
like especially to stand on their heads which they can do 
easily, and nothing is better for their future good posture. 
The women who are most famous for their good posture 
are those who habitually carry huge burdens on then- 
heads. Standing on the head produces the same result 
for the weight of the body is carried by the head and 
hands. 


WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 247 


One can make a whole system of physical training out 
of this exercise alone. 

If you have read and studied this book intelligently you 
have gone a long way toward learning how to train your 
children. You should know exactly what results you may 
get from each exercise and how to get them. If you stick 
to your text you cannot go astray, though there is much 
more that can be given for every one. You cannot take 
time to become an expert physical trainer nor can you 
get it all out of a book. You need your physician and 
physical training expert for the rest, but if you will you can 
do things for the children that will make you very happy 
and proud in the years to come. 

Don’t try to exercise the children before they are three 
years old. Start then to teach the exercises one by one 
in the form of play. They like to imitate the Pussycat 
and the Dog Wag and they make splendid Camels. 
Guard against too rapid and vigorous exercises for little 
ones will overdo quickly; almost as quickly as they 
recover from the effects of it. 

When the school years come, visit the school. Study 
carefully what is being done in the way of health in¬ 
struction as well as health safeguards. Join your local 
Parent-Teacher Association and become a member of its 
committee on hygiene or physical training. I have 
been permitted to use the following schedule of points 
which I prepared for the National Congress of Mothers 
and Parent-Teacher Associations of the United States. 


248 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


SCHOOL SCORE CARD FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING 


SCORE CARD 

FOR RATING THE HEALTH BUILDING AND LIFE PRESE 

School (Public-Private) . City . . . . 

Reported by . 

1. TIME Does every child get 30 minutes active 
exercise every day in school time, under 
expert school instruction? . 

RVING WC 

1st 

IRK OF TH 

SCORE 

2nd 

E SCHOOL 

Final 

2. DRILL Is Two-Minute Drill given three times 
daily? . 




3. PLAY SPACE Is there available on school 
premises. 30 square feet of play space for 
every child in attendance? . 




4. GAMES Do all children know one game for 
each year of age?. 




5. FOLK DANCES Does every girl know one 
folk dance for each year of age?. 




6 . SINGING GAMES Does every primary child 
know four singing games?. 




7. GAMES—ATHLETICS Does every grammar 
school boy know baseball, basket-ball, 
soccer football, and has he a game twice 
a week?. 




8 . OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES Does every child 
over 12 years of age participate in Boy 
Scout, Campfire, or Girl Scouts or equiv¬ 
alent activity?. 




9. POSTURE Is every child marked every 
month on Posture?. 




10. HEALTH INSPECTION Is there Health in¬ 
spection by every teacher, of every pupil, 
every day? . 




11. HEALTH CLUB Have you a Health Club, 
or League, or Crusaders? . 




12. PHYSICAL EXAMINATION Is there physi¬ 
cal examination by doctor once a year? . . 




13. HYGIENIC INSTRUCTION Is hygiene 

taught happily and effectively 30 min¬ 
utes a week? . 




14. SANITATION Is the school clean, well heated, 
lighted and ventilated? . 




Total . 


• 


ACTION RECOMMENDED . 

COMMITTEE APPOINTED . Chairman. 1 

COMMITTEE REPORTED . 

100% OBTAINED . 

COMMITTEE DISCHARGED .... Date. . .. Date for furth( 

Not done. No desire to do. .. Zero Done fairly well 

Not done. Promise 25 Done, good work 

Done, but irregularly 33 Done “as unto the 

;r inspecti 

Lord” 

on .... 

SO 

75 

100 


From the Child Welfare Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 7, March, 1923. 



































WHAT EXERCISE DO YOU NEED? 


249 


This score card is to be used by the local Parent- 
Teacher Association in its study of ways to help the school 
and the children therein. You can get copies of this for 
the use of your own Association either by writing to G. P. 
Putnam’s Sons, N. Y. C., the publishers of this book or 
to the Editor of the Child Welfare Magazine, Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania. 

Visit the classroom, gymnasium and playground and 
see your child go through his exercises. A good physical 
training period should conform to the standards which I 
introduced into the New York City School System many 
years ago and which are used largely throughout the 
United States. 

SCHOOL EXERCISES 

Introductory Exercises 

come first. They are like our stretching but occupy only 
a brief moment or two. 

Corrective Exercises 

for good posture come next. They are devoted to lifting 
the head, straightening of the neck as in the Star Gazer 
and improving the abdominal tone. 

Educational Exercises 

with brisk, definite, quick commands, calculated to 
stimulate accurate and prompt response follow. These 
are for the purpose of mental rather than physical train¬ 
ing. They remove motor stupidity. They replace it with 
grace, agility and accurate, well-directed movements. 


250 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


Recreative Exercises 

of games, folk dances and group athletics finish up the 
period. These should be emphasized and put in the lives 
of every child. 

After school hours up to supper time should be spent as 
much as possible in the fresh air. Every boy should 
become a member of the Boy Scouts and every girl a 
Camp Fire Girl or Girl Scout, at the age of twelve. Every 
boy or girl should spend several summers at a well-directed 
summer camp but you will have to be very careful in your 
selection for many a parent has found that a beautiful 
prospectus with charming photographs has been published 
at the expense of providing the children with good food, 
shelter and responsible leadership. Visit the camp before 
the season opens and talk personally with at least three 
parents who have sent children to the camp and who have 
personally visited it. 

Remember that exercise is not your only duty to the 
health of your child. You owe it to his future to put 
him under the care of a health doctor. He will aid you to 
avoid disease, root out protein sensitizations if they exist 
and save many hours of pain and misery, beside making 
a better boy into a better man. 






CHAPTER XIV 



BATHING 

CONTENTS 

THE WAKE-UP BATH 
RUBBING 

THE TEST OF THE BATH 


251 



CHAPTER XIV 


BATHING 

Just a brief word on bathing. 

There are many different kinds of baths as there are 
different kinds of exercise. Some stimulate, some relax, 
others are for cleansing, while others have their special 
uses in illness. 

The standard morning bath for ordinary persons is as 
follows: 

THE WAKE-UP BATH 

This bath is for tonic purposes and only incidentally 
for cleansing. At least twice a week at night there should 
be a good soap and water scrub all over the body with 
warm water and good, white, bath soap. Of course if you 
have your twice-a-week regular work-out in gymnasium 
or on the tennis court, with perspiration, you will get an 
additional soaping, shower and rub. 

The standard morning bath consists of warm water 
253 


254 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


all over the body for two minutes, with soap under the arm 
pits and in the other creases of the body; next take a full 
half minute of cool water and stop here unless you are in 
good vigorous condition with plenty of fat on the bones. 
If you are in fine shape, take the half minute of cold water 
but not otherwise. 

If you have no shower bath, buy a rubber spray tube 
which fits on any faucet, so that you can spray all parts 
of the body. 

If you are just starting in your body cultivation, fill 
the bath tub half full of warm water and then go through 
your spraying which will leave you at the end standing up 
with your feet in warm water while you dry the rest of the 
body. 

These instructions, simple as they may seem, are 
based upon a long study of hydrotherapy for invalids and 
for well people. 

When you have finished with the bath you have only 
commenced its most important part, which is the rubbing. 
Muller, the great popular physical culturist of Europe, has 
done a tremendous work in the world with his constant and 
widespread propaganda for the rubbing bath. After his 
exercises and even during them, he rubs every square inch 
of skin on the body from six to seven times, or more. This 
stimulates the skin, tones and strengthens the nervous 
system, and puts a tingle in all of the tissues. 

There is much more that every man and woman 
ought to learn about bathing; but it cannot be told here; 


BATHING 


255 


it should have a volume devoted entirely to it. You have 
the essentials in these few words and you can add to it the 
results of your own experience. The test of whether a 
bath has been too severe for you or not comes at ten 
o’clock in the morning. If you feel languid and disin¬ 
clined to work, it may be due to a too cold or too pro¬ 
longed shower before breakfast, or it may be due to the 
fact that you are in poor condition otherwise. 



















CHAPTER XV 



SELF-TESTING 

CONTENTS 

WHERE DO I STAND? 

SAMPLE RECORD OF A HEALTH CLIMBER 
BLANKS FOR SELF RECORD 
RECORD OF A 100% MAN 


257 



CHAPTER XV 



SELF-TESTING 

Where do I stand? 

Do I need these exercises? 

Will they really do me good? 

How can I check up my improvement? 

These are good questions. Suppose you answer them 
yourself. Throughout this book several tests have been 
recommended. By the use of these you can see for your¬ 
self how you are getting on. You are entitled to know 
just how much benefit comes from your effort and work. 
If you do not get your results you should change your 
method and find out what is wrong. If you are faithful 
you will be rewarded with physical improvements which 
are a thousand times worth while. 

Here is a sample of the record of improvement made by 
a business man who wak “in fair shape’ and wished to 


259 


260 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


get into 100% condition. He was a hard-working busi¬ 
ness man, successful financially and socially, and he was 
wise enough to see that his body was deteriorating and 
he wanted to live long and enjoy life. He went to a wise 
physician who searched him over for signs of disease, past, 
present and future. He received guidance on diet, 
habits, work, rest and exercise. He followed his instruc¬ 
tions faithfully, got his results quickly, took his own 
measurements and kept his own records. 

You can do the same. This is quite worth while be¬ 
cause many men start some system of exercise, it does 
them good for a time, they feel better, become indepen¬ 
dent and lazy, and then they slip again. 


THE RECORD OF THE HEALTH IMPROVEMENT OF 
WILL B. STRONG 

Age 38, Married, 4 Children, Commission Merchant 



1st Record 

Oct . / 

2nd Record 
Nov. 1 
(1 mo. later) 

3rd Record 
Jan. 2nd 
{3 rnos. later) 

Ideal Record of 
a 100% Man of 
good all-around 
physique 

Chest contracted 

35 inches 

35 inches 

36 inches 

37 inches 

Chest full 

36 

38 “ 

40 l A “ 

42 

Expansion 

1 inch 

3 inches 

4 H inches 

5 inches 

Abdomen 

40 inches 

38 inches 

37 inches 

36 inches 

Chest, Abd., Ratio 

^=.90 

40 

38 

- = 1.00 

40 H 

—— = 1.09 

37 

fr r - 16 * 


(He developed a splendid flexible chest and pulled in a flabby abdomen. His 
expansion of 4^ inches is as much as anyone needs. At this age, a chest-abdomen 
ratio of 1.09 is as good as we can reasonably expect. It is usually around 70 to 90. 

According to the latest insurance records, his decrease in girth of abdomen and 
increase in girth of chest improved his chances of life 25%!) 














SELF TESTING 

A splendid muscular abdominal wall, well contracted. 
The chest should be 20 per cent greater in girth than the 
contracted abdomen. You have two ways to reach this 
proportion. Increase the chest or decrease the abdomen, 
—do both. 



SELF TESTING 

Abdominal Expansion is as bad as Chest Expansion 
is good. 




SELF-TESTING 


261 


THE RECORD OF THE HEALTH IMPROVEMENT OF 



1st Record 

2nd Record 
(j mo. later) 

3rd Record 
(3 mos. later) 

4th Record 
(1 year late) 

Chest contracted 

inches 

inches 

inches 

inches 

Chest full 

inches 

inches 

inches 

inches 

Expansion 

inches 

inches 

inches 

inches 

Abdomen 

inches 

inches 

inches 

inches 

Chest, Abd., Ratio 

% 

% 

% 

% 

Other records and 
measurements de¬ 
sired by physician 
or teacher of physi¬ 
cal culture 






To be filled in by the owner of this book. 














262 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


TEST EXERCISES 
Record of Will B. Strong 



1st Record 
Oct. i 

2nd Record 
Nov. i 
(/ mo. later ) 

3rd Record 
Jan. 2 
(3 mos. later ) 

Ideal 

Record of a 100% 
Man of good all- 
around physique 

Toe Touching 
Standing 

0 . K. 

0 . K. 

0 . K. 

0 . K. 

Sit-Up 

Not by 6" 

O. K. 

0. K. 

0. K. 

Touch Back 

Not by 
2}4 feet 

Nearly 

0 . K. 

0. K. 

The “L" 

Impossible 

Looks Likely 

Hold it 3 secs. 

30 seconds 

One-Half Bridge 

0. K. 

0. K. 

O. K. 

0 . K. 

Three-Quarter 

Bridge 

Not tried 

O. K. 

O. K. 

O. K. 

Bridge 

Not tried 

0 . K. 

O. K. 

0. K. 

Turning Bridge 

Not tried 

Not tried 

Can do using 

O. K. 

Knee Stand 

No 

O. K. 

arms 

3 minutes 

5 minutes easy 

Head Stand 

Not tried 

0 . K. 

easy 

0 . K. 

3 minutes 

Knee-Elbow 

Stunt 

Not tried 

Failed 

0 . K. Easy 

0 . K. 










SELF-TESTING 


263 


TEST EXERCISES 
(My Record) 


Date. 

1st Record 

2nd Record 
(1 mo. later) 

3rd Record 
(j mos. later ) 

4th Record 
(1 yeat later) 

Toe Touching 
Standing 

Sit-Up 

Touch Back 

The “L" 

One-Half Bridge 

Three-Quarter 

Bridge 

Bridge 

Turning Bridge 

Knee Stand 

Head Stand 

Knee-Elbow 

Stunt 

















264 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


SPECIAL TESTS 
Record of Will B. Strong 



1st Record 
Oct. 1st 

2nd Record 
Nov. 1 

3rd Record 
January 2nd 

Ideal 

Record of a 
100% man in 
good all-around 
physical 
condition 

Pulse Rate 






Standing 

90 

86 


86 

72 

After Running in 






Place 30 seconds; 






rate of 180 steps 

Easy Test 

Easy Test 

Easy 

Hard 

Hard Test 

per minute; by 5 

30 sec. 

30 sec. 

Test 

Test 

60 sec. 

second intervals 

Run 

Run 

30 sec. 

60 sec. 

Run 




Run 

Run 



Pulse 

Pulse 

Pulse 

Pulse 

Pulse 


Rate 

Rate 

Rate 

Rate 

Rate 

Rate after 5 secs. 

156 per min. 

132 

120 

132 

96 

" “ 10 “ 

144 

132 

108 

120 

84 

15 

132 

120 

108 

108 

84 

“ " 20 “ 

120 

120 

96 

108 

84 

“ “ 25 “ 

132 

108 

96 

96 

72 

«. .. 3Q .. 

120 

108 

96 

96 

72 

“ “ 35 “ 

108 

96 

108 

108 

72 

“ " 40 “ 

120 

108 

84 

96 

72 

“ “ 45 “ 

108 

96 

84 

96 

72 

“ “ 50 “ 

108 

96 

84 

96 

72 

“ “ 55 “ 

108 

96 

84 

96 

72 

“ '* 60 “ 

108 

96 

84 

96 

72 

Back to Standing 






Normal in 

2 min. and 

1 min. and 

45 sec. 

1 min. 

Normal in 


35 sec. 

30 sec. 


30 sec. 

30 sec. 

It should be 1 min- 






ute for 100% 






Deduct 1 % for each 






second over 60 






Ratio on easy test is 

5 % 

70 % 

H 5 % 

• . • • 


Ratio on hard test 

• • 

.. 


70 % 

130% 

Blood Ptosis Test 

40 

75 

80 

• • • • 

95 

Haemoglobin 

80 

85 

90 

.... 

96 





















SELF-TESTING 


265 


SPECIAL TESTS 
(My Record) 



1st Record 

2nd Record 
(1 mo. later) 

3rd Record 
(3 mos. later) 

4th Record 
(i year later) 

Pulse Rate 
Standing 





After Running in 
Place 30 seconds; 
rate of 180 steps 
per minute; by 5 
second intervals 

Easy Test 

30 see. 
Run 

Easy Test 

30 sec. 
Run 

Easy Hard 
Test Test 
30 sec. 60 sec. 
Run Run 

Hard Test 
60 sec. 

Run 

Rate after 5 secs. 
“ “ 10 “ 

44 44 44 

41 44 2Q 44 

44 44 44 

<4 44 ^ 44 

“ “ 35 “ 

44 44 44 

44 « ^ 44 

44 44 5Q 44 

“ “ 55 “ 

44 44 6q 44 

Pulse 
Rate 
per min. 

Pulse 

Rate 

Pulse Pulse 
Rate Rate 

Pulse 

Rate 

Back to Standing 
Normal in 

It should be 1 min¬ 
ute for 100% 

min. min. 
sec. sec. 

min. min. 
sec. sec. 

sec. 


Deduct 1 % for 
each second over 
60 





Ratio on easy test 
is 

. 

. 

. 

. 

Ratio on hard test 

. 

. 

. 

. 

Blood Ptosis Test 

. 

. 

. 

- .... 

Haemoglobin 

. 

. 

. 

. 





















CHAPTER XVI 



WEIGHT AND OVERWEIGHT 
CONTENTS 

THE DAY OF THE FAT MAN 

THE BEST WEIGHT 

AFTER THIRTY YEARS 

THE NEW POINT OF VIEW 

IF YOU ARE TOO FAT 

TABLES OF STANDARD WEIGHTS 

TABLES OF PENALTIES FOR OVERWEIGHT 


267 







CHAPTER XVI 



WEIGHT AND OVERWEIGHT 

In the past it was generally thought that a man 
naturally increased in weight as he grew older. It was 
expected and thought to be quite the correct thing. 
But today is not the day of the fat man—or the fat 
woman either. The day of the fat man is yesterday. 
Overweight has been found to be at a discount after the 
age of thirty. Let me quote from Dr. Louis I. Dublin, the 
noted health statistical expert, 1 who has the records of 
eleven million people, old and young, at his fingers’ ends: 

“Let us consider the question of optimum weight, that 
is, that weight in relation to height and age with which 
the greatest length of life is associated. 

“A distinction must first be made between the optimum 
weight and the average weight. In the past, the average 
has often been assumed to be the best weight and tables 

Statistical Bulletin, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company—(Vol. 4, 
page 3, March 23, 1923.) 

269 


270 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


of averages have been very widely circulated and used as 
guides by physicians, nutrition and clinic workers and 
others concerned with the health of children and adults. 
In this way, there sprang up the general assumption that 
deviation from the average weight was undesirable and 
indicated trouble. Children who were as little as io per 
cent below the average have been considered malnourished 
and adults who were 20 per cent or more above or below 
the average have been looked upon as impaired more or 
less seriously. We now know that such assumptions 
about the normality of the average weight are erroneous. 
In fact, it can be shown that the most favorable mortality 
experience is often found among risks whose weights are 
considerably below or above the averages for their height 
and age. 

“At ages under 30 years, the lowest mortality rates 
among insured persons are found in risks whose weights 
are above average. An excess of about 10 pounds in 
weight above the average produces the most favorable 
mortality rates between the ages of 20 and 24 years. 
This excess tapers off until about age 30, where the most 
favorable mortality is found among persons of approxi¬ 
mately average weight. After age 30, the more favorable 
mortality rates are found among persons whose weights 
are below average. The amount below average increases 
with advancing age and at age 50, individuals appear 
to be at their best when their weight is as much as 30 to 40 
pounds below the average. 


WEIGHT AND OVERWEIGHT 


271 


“It seems clear, therefore, that for persons beyond 30, 
underweight is distinctly an advantage so far as a favor¬ 
able prospect of mortality is concerned. It is erroneous to 
suppose that weight should increase with age, as we have 
been led to believe by the tables for average weights. 
This increase with advancing age is, of course, a very com¬ 
mon occurrence, but there is every indication that it is 
a disadvantage and should be carefully avoided. The 
public health movement in its attack upon the diseases 
of adult and later life will do well to bear this fact in mind. 

“The body-weight of persons in adult and later life 
gives a fair indication of the amount of work which is 
thrown upon the digestive, circulatory and excretory 
systems. As men grow older, the difficulties of normal 
functioning of these systems increase with the accumula¬ 
tion of impairments. At the same time, persons as they 
advance in age seem to grow more inclined to take in 
more food, especially proteins and fats, and less inclined 
to indulge in wholesome exercise. This has a tendency 
to place more and more of a strain upon the food utiliza¬ 
tion machinery and consequently, to hasten the break¬ 
down of the organs concerned in these processes. A 
realization of these facts on the part of the public would 
lead, no doubt, to marked changes in habits of diet and 
exercise and to an amelioration of conditions which today 
lead to so much mortality from diseases of the heart, 
blood vessels and kidneys. There is abundant clinical 
evidence to prove that through the restriction of diet 


272 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


and the encouragement of exercise in adults the condi¬ 
tions premonitory of organic impairment and eventual 
breakdown of the circulatory and excretory systems have 
been averted. These facts from life insurance records 
only tend to reinforce what hygienists have been advo¬ 
cating for years.” 


In other words, “A lean horse for a long race.” In 
brief, excess weight is a handicap against the life of the 
fat man. Especially after 30. 

While the slim man has a better chance of long life than 
the man of average weight on the whole, yet he need not 
congratulate himself and go ahead blindly. Thinness 
will not save him if he is suffering from organic disease, 
rheumatism, tuberculosis, nephritis, etc. Nor does mere 
fatness serve a death warrant; it only means that the body 
processes are running slow and that there is left upon the 
body and throughout its tissues a quantity of low-grade 
body substance which should be cleaned up by activity. 
It is not the accumulation of fat that kills. It is the slack¬ 
ness of vital processes which permit the accumulation of 
weight. Fatness is the result,—a sign of deficiencies which 
are deeper than the surface, in the internal organs or the 
endocrine glands. 

Going to a gymnasium to take off weight, without first 
going to your doctor and correcting the cause of the fat, is 
like fighting an octopus by cutting off its tentacles and not 


WEIGHT AND OVERWEIGHT 


273 


attacking the vital center of the beast. The tentacles of 
the octopus will grow again—so will the fat. When you 
remove the cause you can reduce in safety and the fat will 
very likely fade of itself. 

Inactivity is the reason underlying most of the causes 
of fat. It makes the body stagnant, reduces vitality 
and fat follows. 

Don’t try to “bum up” fat by exercise. You are on 
the wrong track. According to Dr. Eugene Lyman 
Fiske of the Life Extension Institute, one of America’s 
authorities on health: “Eight hours of steady walking 
will only bum up X of a pound of fat”—but eight hours 
of walking distributed through eight days will tone up the 
system and help to make the man more alive, his vital 
organs more vigorous and his health better. 

If you are too fat proceed as follows: 

1. Don’t worry, but take action. 

2. See a good health doctor and follow his instructions. 

3. Do your daily exercises for the vital organs giving 

the foregoing chapters of this book careful study. 

4. Round out your daily program with full attention to 

the instructions in Chapter XII. 

5. Tidy up your habits; stop all drinking of alcoholic 

liquors; stop candy; cut down on bread and sweets 
as well as starchy foods. 

6. Bring your chest-abdomen ratio above 100 and keep 

it there—110 is better. The chest must be bigger 
than the abdomen. 

7. Keep at it. 




Standard Table of Heights and Weights-Men 

Black-Face Figures are the Averages 
Light-Face Figures are 20 Per Cent Under and Over the Average 


HEIGHTS 

WEIGHTS ACCORDING TO AGE PERIOD 

Ft . 

In . 

IS to 19 

20 tO 24 

25 to 29 

30 to 34 

35 to 39 

40 to 44 

45 to 49 

50 to 54 

55 to 59 



89 

94 

98 

100 

102 

104 

106 

106 

107 

4 

11 

III 

117 

122 

125 

127 

130 

132 

133 

*34 



133 

140 

146 

150 

152 

156 

158 

160 

161 



90 

95 

99 

102 

103 

106 

107 

108 

109 

5 

0 

113 

119 

124 

127 

129 

132 

134 

135 

136 



136 

143 

149 

152 

155 

158 

161 

162 

163 



92 

97 

IOI 

103 

105 

107 

109 

no 

no 


1 

IIS 

121 

126 

129 

13 1 

134 

136 

137 

'3* 



138 

145 

151 

155 

157 

161 

163 

164 

166 



94 

99 

102 

105 

106 

109 

no 

in 

112 


2 

118 

124 

128 

131 

133 

136 

! 3 f 

139 

140 



142 

149 

154 

157 

160 

163 

166 

167 

168 



97 

102 

105 

107 

109 

hi 

113 

114 

114 


3 

121 

127 

131 

134 

136 

i 39 

141 

142 

143 



I4S 

152 

157 

l6l 

163 

167 

169 

170 

172 



99 

105 

107 

no 

112 

114 

115 

116 

lI l 


4 

124 

131 

134 

137 

140 

142 

144 

i 45 

146 



149 

157 

161 

164 

168 

170 

173 

i74 

175 



102 

108 

no 

113 

115 

117 

118 

119 

120 


5 

128 

135 

138 

141 

144 

146 

148 

149 

150 



154 

162 

166 

169 

173 

175 

178 

179 

180 



106 

hi 

114 

116 

118 

120 

122 

122 

123 


6 

132 

139 

142 

i 45 

148 

150 

152 

153 

154 



158 

167 

170 

174 

178 

180 

182 

184 

185 



109 

114 

117 

119 

122 

123 

125 

126 

126 


7 

136 

142 

146 

149 

152 

154 

156 

157 

158 



163 

170 

175 

179 

182 

185 

187 

188 

190 



112 

117 

120 

123 

126 

127 

129 

130 

130 


8 

140 

146 

150 

154 

157 

159 

l6l 

162 

163 



168 

175 

180 

185 

188 

191 

193 

194 

196 



115 

120 

123 

126 

130 

131 

133 

134 

i34 


9 

144 

150 

154 

158 

162 

164 

166 

167 

168 



173 

180 

185 

190 

194 

197 

199 

200 

202 



118 

123 

126 

130 

134 

135 

137 

138 

138 


10 

148 

154 

158 

163 

167 

169 

171 

172 

173 



178 

185 

190 

196 

200 

203 

205 

206 

208 



122 

126 

130 

134 

138 

140 

142 

142 

143 


11 

153 

158 

l6| 

168 

172 

175 

177 

178 

179 



184 

190 

196 

202 

206 

210 

212 

214 

215 



126 

130 

135 

139 

142 

145 

146 

147 

148 

6 

0 

158 

163 

169 

i 74 

178 

181 

183 

184 

185 



190 

196 

203 

209 

214 

217 

220 

221 

222 



130 

134 

140 

144 

147 

150 

152 

i 53 

154 


1 

163 

168 

175 

180 

184 

187 

190 

191 

192 



196 

202 

210 

216 

221 

224 

228 

229 

230 



134 

138 

145 

149 

153 

155 

158 

158 

159 


2 

168 

173 

l 8 l 

186 

191 

194 

197 

198 

199 



202 

208 

217 

223 

229 

233 

236 

238 

239 



138 

142 

150 

154 

158 

161 

163 

164 

165 


3 

173 

178 

187 

192 

197 

201 

204 

205 

206 



208 

214 

224 

230 

236 

241 

245 

246 

247 


Note. —The average weight is seldom the best. It is usually too high. 

274 











































































































































































Standard Table of Heights and Weights-Women 

Black-Face Figures are the Averages 
Light-face Figures are 20 Per Cent Under and Over the Average 


HEIGHTS 


WEIGHTS ACCORDING TO AGE PERIOD 


Ft. 

In . 

15 to 19 

20 to 24 

25 to 29 

30 to 34 

35 to 39 

40 to 44 

45 to 49 

50 to 54 

55 to 59 



88 

90 

93 

95 

98 

IOI 

103 

105 

106 

4 

11 

no 

113 

116 

119 

122 

126 

129 

131 

132 



132 

136 

139 

143 

146 

151 

155 

157 

158 



90 

92 

94 

97 

99 

102 

105 

106 

107 

5 

0 

112 

ns 

118 

121 

124 

128 

131 

133 

J 34 



134 

138 

142 

145 

149 

154 

157 

160 

161 



91 

94 

96 

98 

IOI 

104 

106 

108 

no 


1 

114 

117 

120 

123 

126 

130 

133 

135 

137 



137 

140 

144 

148 

151 

156 

160 

162 

164 



94 

96 

98 

100 

103 

106 

109 

no 

112 


2 

117 

120 

122 

125 

129 

133 

136 

138 

140 



140 

144 

146 

150 

155 

160 

163 

166 

168 



96 

98 

100 

102 

106 

109 

in 

113 

114 


3 

120 

123 

125 

128 

132 

136 

139 

141 

143 



144 

148 

150 

154 

158 

163 

167 

169 

172 



98 

IOI 

103 

106 

109 

in 

114 

115 

ny 


4 

123 

126 

129 

132 

136 

139 

142 

144 

146 



148 

151 

155 

158 

163 

167 

170 

173 

175 



IOI 

103 

106 

109 

112 

114 

117 

118 

120 


5 

126 

129 

132 

136 

140 

143 

146 

148 

150 



151 

155 

158 

163 

168 

172 

175 

178 

180 



104 

106 

109 

112 

115 

118 

121 

122 

122 


6 

130 

133 

136 

140 

144 

147 

151 

152 

153 



156 

160 

163 

168 

173 

176 

181 

182 

184 

— 


107 

no 

112 

115 

118 

121 

124 

126 

126 


7 

134 

137 

I40 

144 

148 

151 

155 

157 

158 



161 

164 

168 

173 

178 

181 

186 

188 

190 

— 


no 

113 

115 

118 

122 

124 

127 

130 

130 


8 

138 

141 

144 

I48 

152 

155 

159 

162 

163 



166 

169 

173 

178 

182 

186 

191 

194 

196 

— 


113 

116 

II8 

122 

125 

127 

130 

133 

J 34 


9 

141 

145 

148 

152 

156 

159 

163 

166 

167 



169 

174 

178 

182 

187 

191 

196 

199 

200 

— 

— 

116 

119 

122 

124 

127 

130 

133 

136 

138 


10 

145 

149 

152 

155 

159 

162 

166 

170 

173 


174 

179 

182 

186 

191 

194 

199 

204 

208 

— 


120 

122 

124 

126 

130 

133 

136 

139 

142 


11 

150 

153 

155 

158 

162 

166 

170 

174 

177 


180 

184 

186 

190 

194 

199 

204 

209 

212 

— 


124 

126 

127 

130 

132 

135 

138 

142 

146 

6 

0 

155 

186 

157 

188 

159 

191 

162 

194 

165 

198 

169 

203 

173 

208 

177 

212 

182 

218 


Note. —The average weight is seldom the best. It is usually too high. 

275 

















































































































































































276 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


In interpreting the standard tables of weights and 
heights, bear in mind that the average weight is not 
the best weight any more than the income of the average 
man is considered the ideal income. 

How much decrease in expectation of life accompanies 
overweight ? 

If I weigh 190 pounds and I am 37 years of age, five 
feet eight inches tall, what are my chances of long life 
compared with the average man? Here Dr. Dublin has 
again answered your question in the following tables. 

Find your weight, height and age and then refer to the 
column at the left of the table headed “Mortality Ratios.” 
In your case you will find that the number is 125; this 
means that your chances of death are 25% greater than 
that of the average man of your age and height. If you 
weighed 169, the average weight for your height and 
age, your expectancy would be the average—and what is 
far more important, if you were under this weight, your 
chances would be correspondingly better than the aver¬ 
age chances. 

Worth considering isn’t it? 


DIRECTIONS 


Use for males and for females. 

Drop fractions of an inch, 3 ^-inch or less; over J 4 -inch, use next inch. 
Overweights whose abdominal girth exceeds the expanded chest girth 
should receive additions to mortality ratios as per table on 
page 263. 


LIMITS OF OVERWEIGHT CORRESPONDING TO VARIOUS 
MORTALITY RATIOS. 


HEIGHTS 

Mortality- 

Ratios 

WEIGHTS ACCORDING TO AGE PERIOD 

20-24 

25-29 

30-34 

35-39 

40-44 

45-49 

50-53 

54-56 

57-59 


100 

144 

137 

131 

129 

128 

130 

131 

130 

129 


no 

160 

149 

138 

138 

140 

140 

142 

142 

142 


120 

166 

159 

147 

149 

150 

151 

151 

152 

152 


125 

167 

160 

154 

152 

152 

154 

156 

157 

157 

5 ft., i in. 

135 

173 

166 

161 

159 

159 

161 

162 

163 

163 


140 

177 

170 

165 

162 

163 

163 

166 

166 

168 


150 

182 

175 

167 

168 

169 

170 

171 

174 

174 


160 

187 

183 

178 

175 

175 

176 

177 

181 

181 


100 

149 

141 

135 

134 

133 

135 

135 

135 

134 


no 

163 

152 

144 

143 

145 

145 

147 

147 

147 


120 

169 

162 

151 

153 

155 

155 

155 

156 

156 


I2S 

I7X 

X63 

158 

157 

156 

158 

160 

161 

161 

5 ft., 2 in. 

i3S 

177 

170 

165 

163 

163 

165 

167 

167 

167 


140 

180 

173 

168 

166 

166 

168 

170 

171 

172 


150 

187 

179 

172 

172 

173 

175 

176 

178 

178 


160 

192 

187 

181 

179 

178 

180 

181 

185 

185 


100 

153 

146 

141 

140 

139 

141 

141 

141 

140 


no 

166 

157 

150 

149 

150 

I5i 

153 

153 

153 


120 

173 

166 

157 

158 

160 

160 

161 

162 

162 


125 

175 

168 

163 

160 

161 

163 

165 

165 

166 

5 ft., 3 in. 

i35 

181 

175 

170 

168 

168 

170 

172 

173 

174 


140 

185 

178 

173 

171 

171 

173 

175 

176 

177 


150 

191 

183 

177 

177 

178 

180 

181 

183 

183 


160 

197 

191 

186 

184 

183 

186 

187 

190 

191 


100 

158 

151 

147 

147 

146 

147 

147 

147 

146 


no 

169 

l6l 

156 

156 

155 

157 

158 

159 

159 


120 

177 

170 

163 

164 

165 

165 

167 

168 

168 


12s 

180 

173 

168 

167 

167 

169 

171 

171 

172 

5 ft., 4 in. 

135 

186 

180 

175 

174 

173 

176 

178 

179 

180 


140 

190 

183 

178 

177 

176 

179 

181 

182 

183 


150 

196 

188 

183 

183 

183 

185 

187 

189 

189 


160 

202 

196 

191 

190 

188 

191 

193 

196 

197 


100 

163 

156 

153 

153 

152 

154 

154 

154 

152 


no 

173 

166 

162 

162 

162 

163 

164 

165 

165 


120 

182 

174 

170 

170 

171 

171 

173 

174 

174 


125 

185 

178 

174 

173 

173 

175 

177 

178 

178 

e ft., c in. 

135 

191 

185 

181 

180 

179 

182 

184 

185 

186 


140 

195 

188 

184 

183 

182 

I8 S 

187 

188 

189 


150 

201 

194 

190 

190 

190 

191 

194 

196 

196 


160 

207 

201 

197 

196 

194 

197 

200 

202 

204 


100 

166 

160 

159 

159 

159 

160 

161 

161 

161 


no 

177 

170 

168 

168 

168 

170 

171 

172 

173 


120 

186 

179 

176 

176 

176 

178 

180 

181 

182 


125 

189 

183 

180 

179 

179 

181 

183 

185 

185 

5 ft.j 6 in* 

135 

196 

190 

187 

186 

185 

188 

190 

192 

193 


140 

200 

193 

190 

189 

188 

191 

193 

195 

196 


150 

206 

200 

197 

196 

196 

197 

200 

202 

203 


160 

212 

206 

203 

202 

200 

203 

206 

209 

210 


100 

168 

164 

164 

164 

165 

166 

167 

168 

168 


no 

179 

175 

173 

173 

174 

176 

177 

178 

179 


120 

189 

183 

181 

181 

182 

184 

186 

187 

188 


125 

192 

188 

186 

185 

185 

187 

189 

191 

192 


135 

199 

195 

193 

192 

191 

194 

196 

198 

199 

5 it., 7 

140 

203 

198 

196 

195 

194 

197 

199 

201 

202 


150 

209 

205 

203 

201 

201 

203 

206 

208 

209 


160 

215 

211 

208 

207 

206 

209 

212 

215 

216 


Based on Medico-Actuarial Reports, 1912-1918. 

277 




















































































LIMITS OF OVERWEIGHT CORRESPONDING TO VARIOUS 
MORTALITY RATIOS* 


HEIGHTS 

Mortality 

Ratios 

WEIGHTS ACCORDING TO AGE PERIOD 

20-24 

25-29 

30-34 

35-39 

40-44 

45-49 

50-53 

54-56 

57-59 


100 

170 

167 

168 

169 

170 

172 

173 

175 

175 


no 

I8l 

178 

178 

179 

179 

182 

183 

I84 

185 


120 

191 

187 

186 

187 

188 

190 

192 

193 

194 


125 

195 

192 

191 

190 

191 

193 

196 

197 

198 

5 ft., 8 in. 

135 

203 

199 

198 

198 

198 

200 

203 

204 

205 


140 

207 

202 

201 

201 

201 

203 

206 

207 

208 


15° 

212 

209 

208 

207 

207 

209 

212 

214 

215 


160 

218 

215 

2 I 3 

213 

212 

215 

218 

221 

223 


100 

173 

171 

171 

173 

174 

176 

177 

179 

180 


IIO 

l82 

180 

181 

184 

184 

186 

188 

I89 

191 


120 

192 

189 

189 

192 

192 

194 

196 

197 

199 


125 

196 

194 

193 

194 

195 

198 

200 

202 

203 

5 ft., 9 in. 

135 

205 

202 

202 

202 

203 

205 

208 

209 

210 


140 

209 

206 

205 

205 

206 

208 

2 X 1 

212 

214 


150 

214 

212 

21X 

211 

211 

215 

217 

219 

221 


160 

221 

218 

217 

217 

217 

220 

223 

226 

228 


IOO 

176 

175 

175 

176 

177 

180 

I8l 

183 

184 


IIO 

I8l 

I8I 

I84 

187 

188 

190 

192 

193 

195 


120 

192 

191 

192 

195 

196 

197 

199 

201 

203 


125 

197 

195 

196 

198 

199 

202 

204 

206 

208 

5 ft., 10 in. 

I 3 S 

206 

204 

204 

206 

207 

209 

213 

214 

215 


140 

210 

208 

208 

209 

210 

212 

216 

217 

219 


150 

216 

2 X 5 

214 

214 

215 

219 

222 

224 

226 


160 

223 

221 

221 

221 

221 

225 

228 

231 

23 3 


IOO 

t 

t 

t 

t 

179 

183 

185 

187 

189 


IIO 

180 

X82 

186 

189 

192 

194 

196 

197 

199 


120 

193 

193 

194 

198 

199 

201 

204 

206 

208 


125 

198 

197 

199 

201 

203 

206 

208 

211 

213 

5 ft., xx in. 

135 

207 

205 

206 

209 

210 

213 

216 

219 

220 


140 

211 

209 

210 

212 

213 

217 

220 

222 

224 


150 

218 

217 

216 

217 

219 

223 

227 

229 

232 


160 

225 

224 

224 

224 

225 

230 

233 

236 

238 


IOO 

t 


t 

t 

181 

186 

I89 

190 

192 


IIO 

179 

183 

188 

191 

195 

197 

200 

201 

203 


120 

193 

195 

196 

201 

203 

205 

208 

211 

213 


125 

199 

199 

201 

204 

207 

210 

213 

216 

218 

6 ft., 0 in. 

135 

208 

207 

208 

2x2 

214 

217 

219 

223 

225 


140 

213 

211 

212 

215 

216 

221 

223 

226 

229 


150 

220 

219 

219 

221 

223 

227 

231 

233 

236 


IOO 

227 

227 

227 

228 

229 

234 

238 

241 

243 


IOO 

t 

t 

t 

t 

184 

190 

193 

194 

196 


IIO 

180 

185 

191 

194 

198 

202 

204 

205 

208 


120 

195 

199 

200 

204 

207 

210 

213 

217 

219 


125 

201 

201 

204 

207 

211 

215 

218 

222 

224 

6 ft., 1 in. 

I 3 S 

209 

208 

209 

212 

217 

222 

223 

228 

231 


140 

216 

213 

215 

218 

221 

226 

228 

232 

235 


150 

223 

222 

222 

224 

226 

231 

235 

238 

241 


160 

229 

230 

230 

231 

232 

238 

243 

246 

249 


IOO 

t 

t 

t 

t 

188 

193 

199 

200 

202 


IIO 

180 

187 

193 

197 

201 

205 

208 

210 

212 


120 

I96 

200 

202 

209 

213 

215 

219 

222 

225 

6 ft., 2 in. 

125 

202 

204 

207 

211 

216 

219 

223 

227 

229 

and over 

135 

210 

211 

212 

216 

221 

227 

228 

232 

236 


140 

218 

216 

217 

221 

225 

230 

232 

235 

240 


150 

225 

225 

225 

228 

230 

236 

239 

244 

246 


l6o 

231 

233 

233 

236 

237 

244 

248 

252 

254 


♦Based on Medico-Actuarial Reports, 19x2-1918. 

♦ At these heights and ages, all weights are over 100% mortality. 

278 
































































WEIGHT AND OVERWEIGHT 279 


ADDITIONS TO MORTALITY RATIOS FOR OVERWEIGHTS 
WITH EXCESS ABDOMINAL GIRTHS 


Abdominal Girth 

Ratios, 100% to 140% incl. 

Ratios, 

150% and 160% 

Under 
Age 40 

Age 

40-50 

Age 50 
and over 

Under 
Age 40 

Age 

40-50 

Age 50 
and over 

1-inch excess. 

0 

0 

5 

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5 

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20 

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10 

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1 20 

30 

40 


Now turn to the table “Additions to Mortality Ratios 
for Overweights with Excess Abdominal Girths.” To 
be merely overweight is bad enough, but the scales do 
not tell the whole story. You must use the tape measure 
as I showed you, to get the chest-abdomen ratio. If you 
carry your excess weight well distributed over the body 
with a big chest and a tight abdomen, it is not so bad— 
but if your abdomen bulges your chances are poorer by 
far. Every inch the abdomen girth exceeds the chest 
girth carries its penalty. A four inch excess may make 
as much difference as does forty pounds of excess weight. 
These facts from the hard-headed life insurance company 
came to my attention just as this book is going to press, 
gratifying statistical evidence supporting our personal 
experience. It puts in terms of dollars and cents the value 
of the instruction that you have been getting in the earlier 
chapters of this book. 

A bulging abdomen is not so much an index of fatness 
as it is of the degree of ptosis. A bulging abdomen 
may or may not be accompanied by excessive overweight. 
In fact it has a significance all of its own which is becom¬ 
ing recognized as a sign of vital inefficiency. 
















280 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


If your abdomen bulges, get to work. Re-read this 
book and everywhere you see the word “ptosis” study the 
instructions with care and rid yourself of a handicap that 
is shortening your life and taking much out of it. Others 
have done it and so can you. 




CHAPTER XVII 



THE PHYSICIAN 

CONTENTS 
A NEW FIELD 
THE HEALTH DOCTOR 
THE HEALTH EXAMINATION 
PRESCRIPTION OF EXERCISE 
BLANKS FOR PRESCRIPTION 


281 



















CHAPTER XVII 



THE PHYSICIAN 

A new field is opening for the physician. 

You are being called upon to make people’s lives 
happier, stronger and more efficient. You are the proper 
source from which the world will gain its health, happiness 
and efficiency. You will build strength. You will teach 
men, women and children how to live so that they will get 
the better things into their lives and will possess good 
health in great abundance. You are to be the Health 
Doctors, for a new point of view, that of Constructive 
Health, is beginning to sweep over the country. 

You have conquered many diseases—smallpox, the 
black plague, yellow fever and the hook worm are fading 
into history. Tuberculosis, diphtheria and malaria are fast 
giving way. You have thrown great sanitary safeguards 
around civilized communities and have made marvelous 
records in disease prevention. 

The next step is the making of superior men, capable 
of living 100% lives—an increasingly better race, living 
283 


284 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


more fully, happily and efficiently, to the greater glory of 
God—and man. 

THE HEALTH DOCTOR 

The Health Doctor is a specialist in constructive 
health. He is first a good physician—an all-around 
family doctor who knows daily life as well as disease. 
People will come to him as clients come to a lawyer, to 
take care of their business affairs and estates and keep 
them out of trouble. Just so people are coming to the 
Health Doctor, putting their health in his charge. 

You will give your clients a searching examination 
and have them report to you at intervals thereafter of 
one month, three months or six months, pro re nata. 

OUTLINE OF THE HEALTH EXAMINATION 

The health examination will contain the following: 

I. History. 

a. The usual schedule of records should be taken, 

including a searching inquiry into the kind 
of stock from which your client comes. Not 
only the health, diseases and tendencies of 
the parents and grandparents but aunts, 
uncles, sisters and brothers should be in¬ 
quired after. 

There is a greater resemblance in families in 
the internal organs than there is in faces. 

b. The usual record of diseases, disabilities and 

operations should be recorded and focal 
infections should be included. 


THE PHYSICIAN 


285 


2. Habits. 

Most disabilities and diseases have their causes in 
unhygienic habits. Inquire into diet, work, rest, 
recreation, exercise, tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco 
—with a diplomatic handling of sex questions. 

3. Measurements of weight, height, chest and abdomen 

girths should be taken. 

The two tests of posture, referring both to the 
relation of the front and the back of the body 
to perpendiculars should be recorded, with 
spinal curvature and flat feet. 

4. Physiological tests, including the strength of the 

grip, vital capacity, blood ptosis test, exercise 
tolerance test, intestinal mobility and intestinal 
clearance and haemoglobin should be recorded. 

5. Pathological conditions should be searched for. This 

should include a urinalysis with special refer¬ 
ence to indican; the heart with its valves, 
muscular condition and rhythm; the arteries, 
veins, and capillaries; signs of age in the eye; 
infections of the ear, pharynx, nose and teeth; 
indications of body toxaemia in the cervical, 
axillary, epi-trochlear lymph glands; with a 
careful notation of stomach, liver, gall bladder, 
small and large intestines, appendix, skin, 
genitals and joints. 

6 . Endocrine analysis is in its infancy. It occasionally 

has some bearing on the health and efficiency of the 
patient and should be made a matter of observation. 

The examination completed, the real work of the 
Health Doctor begins—in cooperating with the client, in 


286 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


organizing his life and his life affairs to best advantage. 
This is a science and an art in a field which deserves a 
volume in itself. Part of the instruction of the doctor 
to the client will be devoted to exercise. 

PRESCRIPTION OP EXERCISE 

From your examination you have clearly defined the 
client’s several needs. They should be tabulated and 
studied. You should not attempt to correct all deficiencies 
at once. Concentrate on points of greatest immediate 
need. Start slow. It is frequently advisable to give only 
one, two or three exercises in the beginning. They should 
be taught thoroughly either by the physician or by an 
assistant who has been adequately trained. Avoid as¬ 
sistants who are committed to any one system of exer¬ 
cise just as you would avoid a physician who is committed 
to any one system of medicine. Make your clients show 
you their progress in your consulting room. Correct, 
check up, encourage and teach the new exercises yourself. 
Make your requirements reasonable, well adjusted to 
life, to work and to limitations. 

Test your clients frequently to see if they are actually 
getting the desired results, for nothing is any good unless 
it proves itself. 

The following schedule can be used as a prescription 
blank and your client can bring this book to you for 
record of his tests and change in prescription as 
well. 


THE PHYSICIAN 


287 


DAILY MORNING EXERCISE 

MINUTES 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (check) 


Slow,Moderate,Fast 


No. of 
Times 


2nd 

Prescription 


3rd 

Prescription 


I. STRETCH 

Sky Lift 
Air Push 

II. PUMPING by Threes 

Pumping by Fives 
Abdominal Breathing 
Packing 

Reversed Breathing 

HI. KICK UP l 

Knee Raising Triad 
Sigmoid Appendix 
Special 

Leg Raising Triad 
Toe Touching 
Sit Up 
Touch Back 
The “L” 

Cross Over 
Bicycle 

Adams Bicycle 
Scissors 

Double Scissors 

IV. CHURNING 
Pussy Cat 
Dog Wag 
Camel 

V. TICKLE TOE 
N—E—W—S 
Knee Raising 
Kicking 
Cross Kick 
Double Whirl 

VI. PEP STEPS 

Running in Place 
Running Knees Up 
Running Heels Up 
Indian Steps 
Side Rocker 
Forward Rocker 
Swing Step 
Irish Kick 

VII. STAR GAZER 
Hen Peck 

Restricted Rotation 
Half Bridge 
Three-Quarter Bridge 
The Bridge Complete 
Rolling Bridge 

Head Stand 
Stage 1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 














288 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 

DAILY WALK 10—20—30— 45—1 hour 

After Breakfast 
Before Lunch 
After Lunch 
Before Dinner 
Evening 


THE WORK OUT 

Setting Up — Game — Bath—Electric Cabinet—Rub Down 
Before Lunch 
Before Evening Meal 
Evening 


MORNING BATH 

Hot—Minutes, Warm—Minutes, Cool—Minutes, 
Cold—Minutes 

Shower 

Spray 

Tub 


ONE-HALF DAY OFF Rest at Home (horizontal) Sleep 
Non-Motor Recreation —Theatre, Moving Pictures, Con¬ 
cert 

Motor Recreation —Golf 9 holes—18 holes, Spray 
Bath—Hot, Warm, Cool, Cold 
Rub Down 

Hike—T ennis—Swimming 


THE PHYSICIAN 


289 


SUNDAY 

A.M. Tennis — Walk — Rest — Church — Golf 
— Hike—Motor 

P.M. Rest — Walk — Tennis — Golf — Hike — 
Motor — Swimming — Skating — 
Theatre — Movie 











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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 


FOR THE PHYSICIAN 

The Physiology of Muscular Exercise, Bainbridge. Long¬ 
mans, Green & Co. 

A thorough scientific statement of the physiological 
effects of exercise. 

Exercise in Education and Medicine, McKenzie. Saunders. 

Up to date, the best general book on exercise for the 
doctor. 

Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology, Bowen & McKenzie. 
Lea & Febiger. 

A scientific treatise on the mechanics of exercise. 

Pedagogyof Physical Training, Crampton. Macmillan & Co. 

A book for the teacher of physical training, giving the 
practical and theoretical sides of the subject; es¬ 
pecially for school teachers who are required to 
give exercise. Containing treatise on Good Posture. 

Mass Physical Training, Raycroft. U. S. Infantry Asso¬ 
ciation, Washington, D. C. 

A statement of the physical exercises used in training 
in the army. 

Therapeutic Exercise and Massage, Bucholz. Lea & 
Febiger. 

Discussion of the use of exercise in medicine from the 
standpoint of the technical worker. 

291 


292 PHYSICAL EXERCISE FOR DAILY USE 


The Gravity Resisting Ability of the Circulation—Blood 
Ptosis, Crampton. American Journal of Medical 
Science Nov., 1920—No. 5, Vol. CLX, p. 721. 

A record of the application of the Blood Ptosis Test to 
health and disease with description of the test. 

Good Posture, Crampton. Bulletin No. 61—Dept, of 
Public Instruction—State of Michigan. 

A summary of good posture and the ways to get it. 

Underlying Factors in Good Posture, Crampton. N. Y. 
Medical Journal, Nov., 1920. 

Good posture discussed for the physician. 

Periodic Medical Examination of Apparently Healthy 
Persons, Emerson. Journal, American Medical 
Association, May, 1923, Vol. 80—No. 19. 

An important resume and statement of method of 
periodical health examination. 

Body Weight and Longevity, Dublin. Statistical Bul¬ 
letin, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Vol. 
Ill—No. 12, Nov., 1922. 

Summary of relation of overweight to length of life. 

Relation of Posture to Human Efficiency, Goldthwaite. 

A convincing statement of the effects of bad posture 
on health. 

The Role of Exercise in the Treatment of Visceroptosis 
with Special Reference to the System of W. Curtis 
Adams, Bradford. Medical Record, April 25, 
1914. 

An interesting report on the special work of Adams. 

The Practice of Developmental and Corrective Exercise, 
Bradford. Woman’s Medical Journal, October, 
I9i5- 


Increase on Standing 


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 


293 


The Folk Dance Book, Crampton. A. S. Barnes & Co. 
N. Y. 

Description and music of simple folk dances for home, 
playground and school. 

Exercise and Hypertension, Crampton. N. Y. Medical 
Journal, July 4, 1923. 

A statement of the use of exercise in the prevention 
and treatment of high blood pressure. 

A Handbook of Positive Health. The Woman’s Founda¬ 
tion for Health, 370 7th Ave., N. Y. C. 

A popular treatise on constructive health for women. 


BLOOD PTOSIS TEST 

Percentage Scale 

[Crampton Value] 


BLOOD PRESSURE 




Increase on Standing 

Decrease on Standing 



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PERIODIC HEALTH EXAMINATION 

PREPARED AND PUBLISHED BY THE 

American Medical Association, 535 North Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois 


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INDEX 




Ab, how he woke up,'6i; his upward 
climb, 141 

Abdominal bulging, 99, 145 
Abdominal exercises in the hori¬ 
zontal position, 99 
Abdominal girth improvement, 260 
Abdominal massage, 82, 101, 105 
Adams, W. C., 209, 292 
Adams’ bicycle, 112 
Aeroplane exercise, 150 
Age, signs in eye, 295 
Age-weight-height tables, 274, 275 
Air Push, the, 70 
Alarm clock, 63 
Alcohol, effect on arteries, 172 
Allergy, 221 

American Medical Association 
blanks for examination, 294 
Analysis of stretch, 66 
Angle, subcostal, 231 
Architect, the, 170 
Arteries, as old as his, 172; in neck, 
195; training the, 172 
Artist’s program, 231 
Aspiration of thorax, 78 
Athletes, the, 167 
Attractiveness, biological, 159 
Auto-intoxication, 129 
Auto-massage, 126; see Abdominal 
massage 

Automobile, human, 37 


Backache, exercise for, 109, 243 
Back, straight, for the wife, 244 
Bainbridge, 291 
Basket ball, effect of, 20 
Bath, wake up, 253; tonic, 253; 

morning, 254 
Bathing, 11, 251 

Beauty, housewife’s duty, 245; mas¬ 
culine, 144; woman’s right to, 159 
Bed clothes, abolition of, 98 
Bibliography, 291 
Bicycle, no; Adams’, 112 
Bicycle riders, hearts, 171; tests 
of, 189 

Bicycling before breakfast, 179 
Biological position for exercise, 
242; in exeicise, 134; of body, 142 
Blank for health examination, 293; 

for prescription, 287 
Blood pressure, results of breathing, 
79 

Blood ptosis, test, 186, 265, 293; 
scale, 293 

Blood pumps, muscles as, 178 
Bowen, 291 

Breakdown, woman's, 232 
“Break,” the, 185 
Breath, baby’s first, 77 
Breathing, abdominal, 87; baby's, 
77; effects of, 79> 84; effect on 
circulation, 79; exercise, 86; pack- 


295 



296 


INDEX 


Breathing —Continued 

ing, 88; physical basis of, 78; 
reversed, 88; variations of, 84 
Bridge, 202; half, 203; rolling, 204; 

three-quarter, 203 
Bucholz, 291 
Buddha, 121 
Bulging abdomen, 99 
Business office set up, 236 

Caecum, exercise to empty, 102 
“Camel," exercise, 133 
Cave man, 61 
Charlatans, 159 

Chart, blood ptosis test, 293; exer¬ 
cise effects, 20; health record, 
261; mortality ratios, 274, 278; 
weight, height, age, 274, 278 
Chest-abdomen ratio, 91, 260; exer¬ 
cises, see Pumping; narrow, exer¬ 
cises for, 240 

Childhood, exercises for, 245 
Child nervousness, 246 
Chin ciicles, 200 
Churning, 123 

Circulation, awakening, 80; effect 
of breathing, 78; effects of exer¬ 
cise on, 25, 26, 37, 40, 65, 68, 79, 
126, 145, 147, 172, 173, 186, 187; 
lymphatic, 81 
Circulatory diseases, 130 
Circulatory exhaustion, 25, 38 
Circulatory tonic, 81 
Client, health, 284 
Cold bath, 174 

Colon, exercises for, 102, 124, 126, 
128; the kinking, 136 
“Comment vous—” 193 
Common sense, 9 

Condition, the percentage table, 
293; posture test of, 211; see 
Blood ptosis 


Constipation, 83, 102, 129, 134; 
exercises for, 102; from kinks, 
134 

Constructive health, 283 
Corsets, 141; antiquity, 154; arti¬ 
ficial, 150; as splints, 152; bad, 
157, bad features of, 156; bio¬ 
logical, 152; builders, 160; good, 
155; history, 155; shop workers', 
239 

Cost of exercise, 41 
Crampton value, 293; see Blood 
ptosis 

Croquet, effects of, 20 
Cross kick, 163 
Cross over exercise, 108 

Daily bath, 253 
Daily schedule of exercise, 215 
Daily walk, 288 
Dance, the, 180 

Dances, folk, 248; bibliography, 
Appendix; Indian, 181 
Dangers of abdominal exercises, 
103 

Dangers of over exercise, 25, 37 
Day off, prescribed, 288 
Day of the Fat Man, 267 
Diaphragm, 87 
Diaphragmatic exercise, 83 
Diet, 12 

Digestion, 27, 126, 175; see Con¬ 
stipation 

Digestive tonic, 175 
Disease and weight, 271 
Doctor, health, 283 
Dogwag exercise, 132 
“Don’t start anything—” 40 
Double whirl, 163 
Double scissors, 117 
Drill, 2 minute: mothers', 244; 
school, 248; shop, 244 



INDEX 


297 


Dublin, Louis I., 130, 269 
Dysmenorrhoea, 83, 86 

Educating the arteries, 172; the 
veins, 173 

Effect of exercise on organs, 26, 82, 
103, 126, 144 

Effect of over exercise, 25, 37, 226 
Effect of gravity, 142; see Ptosis 
Effects of muscular contraction, 
22; mechanical, 23; physiological, 
24, 26; psychological, 29 
Effects of the seven set up exer¬ 
cises: major, 156; minor, 156; 
see also Exercise 
Efficiency, basis of, 174 
Elevation cues, 70, 72 
Emerson, Dr. H., 292 
Endocrines, 285 
Endurance, 176 
Enteroptosis, 116; see Ptosis 
Examination, health, 284; physical, 
in school, 248 

Excess girth tables of mortality, 279 
Executive, the, 3, 223; (McLean) 
223; the woman, 231 
Exercise, 18; anatomical, 18, 19; 
classes of, 17; glands, 26; heart, 
26; hereditary impulses, 30; intes¬ 
tines, 26; kinds of, 17; lungs, 26; 
out of doors, 31; physiological, 
18, 24; prescription, 286; psycho¬ 
logical, 18, 29; schedule, 213; 
stomach, 26; structural effects of, 
18 to 30; systems, 12; tests, per¬ 
sonal record, 261; vigorous, dan¬ 
ger of, 25, 38; weight, effect on, 
273; what is, 17 

Exercises, abdominal breathing, 87; 
Adams, 112; air push, 70; anti¬ 
constipation, 129; auto massage, 
130; Boy Scouts, 250; breathing, 


abdominal, 87; breathing, re¬ 
versed, 88; bicycle, no; bridge, 
half, 202; three-quarter, 203; 
rolling, 204; Camel, 133; Camp 
Fire Girls, 250; churning, 121; 
corrective, 249; children, 245; con¬ 
stipation, see constipation; cross 
kick, 163; cross over, 108; dance, 
Indian, 181; dance, 180; dia¬ 
phragmatic, 83; dogwag, 132; 
double whirl, 163; educational, 
249; Girl Scouts, 250; half bridge, 
202; head stand, 206; hen peck, 
199; Indian steps, 181; Irish 
kick, 184; introductory, 249; 
kicking, cross, 162; kick up, 96; 
knee raising, 161; knee raising 
triad, 100; knee stand, 206; 
Kundalani, 121; The “L,” 107; 
leg raising triad, 103; neck-ache, 
198; neck flexibility, 198; N-E- 
W-S, 160; obesity, 273; packing, 
88; pep steps, 166; pumping, 80; 
pussycat, 132; posture, for good, 
193; recreative, 249; reversed 
breathing, 88; restricted rotation, 
200; rocker, side, 182; running in 
place, heels up, knees up, 179; 
scissors, 114; scissors, double, 
117; side rocker, 182; sigmoid- 
appendix special, 102; sit up, 106; 
sky lift, 71; star gazer, 193; 
stretch, 62; swing step, 183; 
three-quarter bridge, 203; tickle 
toe, 148; toe touching, 106; touch 
back, 107; triad, knee raising, 
101; leg raising, 103; vacuum 
cleaner, 82 

Exhaustion, 25, 38 

Factory, set up, 236 

Fainting, 145 



298 


INDEX 


Family exercise, 242, 246 
Family resemblances, 284 
Fat, 268; cause of, 272 
Field of health physician, 283 
Fifth exercise, Chapter IV, Chapter 
IX, p. 139 

Fifty percent circulation, 4 
Fifty percent life, 4 
Fifty percent man, 7 
First exercise, Chapter IV, Chapter 
V, p. 61 

Fiske, Dr. E. L., 273 
Flapper, the, 158 
Folk Dance Book, 293 
Folk dances, 248; bibliography, 
Appendix 
Football hero, 24 
Formal exercises necessary, 154 
Forward rocker, 182 
Fourth exercise, Chapter IV, Chap¬ 
ter VIII, p. 119 
Fresh air in daily schedule, 216 
Friend Husband, 241 
Frog kick, 209 
Fun, 11 

Fussy steps, 233 

Games, singing, 248 
Garters, 158 

Gastro-intestinal tonic, 175 
Gastroptosis, 116; see Ptosis 
Getting up, 35 

Girth excess and mortality, 279 
Glandular Exercise, 27 
Goldthwaite, Dr. Joel E., 292 
Golf, effects of, 20, 217 
Gravity, effects of, 21; use of, in 
exercise, 206 

Gymnasium, need of, for laborer, 
231; young man, 228 

Habit, in posture, 195 
Habits, inquiry into, 285 


Happiness, effect on liver, 175; 

posture of, 193; husbands, 241 
Headaches, 198 

Head, losing it, 205; stand, 206 
Head push, 201 

Health, construction, 283; in club, 
238; in school, 248; mechanics of 
good, 23; organic, 27 
Health doctor, 147, 218, 273, 283 
Health examination, 10, 187, 284 
Health examination blank, 293 
Health improvement record, 261 
Health plus, 177 
Health test chart, 261 
Health tests, 186 

Health, woman’s foundation for, 
293 

Heart exercise, 26 

Heart, “Keep thy,” 169; small, 8: 
too small, 169; too large, 171; 
training, 171; weak, 170 
Height, weight, and age tables, 
274 

Hen peck exercise, 199 
High blood pressure, 293 
History recording, 284 
Horizontal posture, abdominal ex¬ 
ercise in, 99 

Housewife, 241; exercise, 241; re¬ 
laxation, 244; rest, 244; two 
minute drill, 244 
“How do you do,” 193 
How he did it, 6 
How to prescribe exercise, 286 
How to quit, necessity of knowing, 
226 

Hydrotherapy, 254 
Hygienic waists, 158 

Impairments and weight, 271 
Improvement of health record, 
261 




INDEX 


Indian dance, 181 
Indian exercises, 131 
Indican, in health examination, 
285 

Individual needs, 219 
Initiative, 10 
Inside job, 227 
Inspection, health, 248 
Instruction in exercise, duty of 
health doctor, 286 
Irish kick, 183 
Irish lilt, 182 

Irritability, exercise for, 240 

Job, inside, 227; laborers, 229; 
24-hour, 241; the biggest, 241; 
white collar, 227; see Program 
Joy, 180 

Keong Jong, 6, 29 

Kick, cross, 163; frog, 209; Irish, 

183 

Kicking, 162 
Kick-up exercise, 96 
Kinking colon, 134 
Kinks in neck, 200 
Knee raising, 161 
Knee raising triad, 100 
Knee stand, 207 
Kundalani, 123 

“L,” the, test of rectus, 107 
Labor, effects of, 20 
Laborer’s program, 229 
Laborer’s weakness, 229 
Large muscle exercise, 178 
Laughing, effect of, 127 
Lawyer, the, 169 
Laxatives, 242 
Lazy organs, 176 
Lazy people, 205 
Lazy caecum, 102 


299 

Leadership, supported by body, 233 

Learning to chum, 124 

Leg raising triad, 103 

Lie, a, 151 

Life, training, 167 

Lift, sky, 71 

Lymph flow, 81 

Lymph glands, 285 

McBumey’s point, 103 
Machinist’s program, 230 
McKenzie, Dr. R. Tait, 291 
McLean, Rock, 223 
Major effects of exercise, 40 
Massage of abdomen, 82, 101, 126 
Massage, organic, 68 
Measurements in health exami¬ 
nation, 285 

Measurements, see Tests 
Measurements of chest, 90; abdo¬ 
men, 90 

Mechanical effects of muscular con¬ 
traction, 22, 64; on muscles, 65 
Mechanics of good health, 23 
Melancholia, 127 
Middle age, need of exercise, 224 
Millionaire (biological), 224 
Millionaire, the, 4 
Mind, effect of exercise on, 29 
Minor effects of exercise, 40 
Moderation in exercise, 105, 112 
Morning wake up, 36 
Mortality and excess girth, 279 
Mortality tables, 274-275, 277-279 
Mosher, Dr. Clelia, 86 
Muller, recommendation on bath¬ 
ing, 254 

Muscles, large, exercise of, 28; out of 
date, 29 

Muscles of abdomen, 150; arteries, 
173; of neck, 66; trunk, 66, 150; 
veins, 174 



300 


INDEX 


Music in exercise, 180 
My record, 261 

Narrow chest, exercises for, 240; 
woman’s, 235 

National Congress of Mothers, 247 
Nature, a good guide, 66; her me¬ 
thods, 66 

Neck aches, 198; exercises, 196; 
flexibility, 198; muscles, 23, 66; 
tired, exercise for, 240 
Neck, value of the good posture, 
195 

Nervousness, 240 

N-E-W-S, 160; workers’ set up, 238 
Night before, the, 41 

Obesity, 271-273 
Oblique muscles, 151 
Office exercises, 236 
One Hundred Percent Condition, 3-6 
One Hundred Percent Life, 3 
One Hundred Percent Man, 6 
“One Man’s Meat,” 222 
Optimum weight, 269 
Organic exercise, 177 
Organic strength, 177 
Organic training, 177; see Exercise 
Effects 

Over exercise, 25 
Overhauling the body, 10 
Overweight, 267; tables, 277-278 

Packing, 88, 237 
Parent-Teacher Association, 247 
Parents, wise, 245 
Peet, Dr. Walter B., 148 
Pelvic congestion, 243 
Pep steps, 167 
Personal health record, 261 
Personal variation, in need of exer¬ 
cise, 223 


Perspiration in daily schedule, 217 
Phra the Phoenician, 35 
Physical examination, 196 
Physical training, in schools, 168; 

time in school, 248 
Physician, 10, 37, 85, 105, 118, 131, 
136, 147, 159, 169, 188, 221, 222, 
225, 247, 250, 260, 272, 273, 284, 
291 

Piece work, increased by exercise, 
236 

Pneumonia victim, the, 169 
Posture, 194; good, 194; school, 
248; sitting, 239; tests of, 210; 
of ill health, 22; of health, 22 
Prescription blank, 286 
Prescription of exercise, 286 
Profit from exercise, 41 
Program, artists, 231; child’s, 245; 
executives, men, 225; executives, 
women, 231; laborers, 229; school 
principal, 231; shop workers, 234; 
singers, 231; woman’s 231-234; 
young man’s, 227 
Program for 100% Life, 10 
Protein sensitization, 250; see 
Allergy 

Ptosis, 143; blood, 145; circulatory, 
145; skeletal, 143; testing, 147; 
visceral, 144 

Ptosis and mortality, 280 
Ptosis test, blood, 186 
Pulse recovery test, 187, 265 
Pumping, 80 
Push, the air, 70 
Push, head, 201 
Pussycat exercise, 132 

Quadratus'lumborum. 148 

Rabbit, weak as a, 146 
Race of life, 168 



INDEX 


301 


Racial exercise, 30 
Racial history, 30 
Raising knee, 161 
Raycroft, Dr. Jos. E., 291 
Record, my, 261 

Record of health improvement, 261 
Recreation, in daily schedule, 216 
Rectus abdominis, 104; exercise, 
101; tests, 105 
Reducing, 273 

Relaxation, 244; for the housewife, 
244 

Religious regard for the body, 120 
Repulsion, psychological use of, in 
exercise, 69 
Rest, 244 

Rest hour for the housewife, 244 
Restricted rotation, 200 
Results of the kick-up, 98 
Reversed breathing, 88 
Rhythmic exercises, 178 
Right side of the bed, 96 
Rocker, forward, the, 182 
Rotation, restricted, 200 
Rubbing bath, 254 
Running, 178; effects of, 20 

Sallow skin, exercise for, 240 
Sand bag, use of, 85 
Sanitation, school, 248 
Schedule of exercise, for daily life, 

215 

School, folk dances, 248; play in 
school, 248; score card, 248; 
time for physical training, 248 
School principal’s program, 232 
Scientific exercises and “natural” 
exercises, 84 

Scissors, 114; double, 117 
Scissor twist, 209 

Score card for school health work, 
248 


Sculptor, human (the mother), 246 
Second exercise, Chapter IV, 
Chapter VI, 80 
Self massage of muscles, 65 
Self testing, 257, 259 
Sequence of exercise in set-up, 38 
Service, 11 

Setting-up exercises, comparison, 
36 

Set up, shop, 236 

Seventh exercise, Chapter IV, 
Chapter XI, 191 
Shake up, what one did, 128 
Shop, set up, 236 
Shop sitters, 236 
Sick? is he, 187 
Sick headache, 130 
Sigmoid appendix special, 102 
Singer’s program, 231 
Singing games, 248 
Sitters, shop, 236 

Sitting position for shop worker, 
239 

Sit up (test of Rectus), 106 
Sixth exercise, Chapter IV, Chap¬ 
ter IX, 165 
Skating, 231 
Sky lift, 71 
Sleep, 42 

Sleeping positions, 62 
Smash up, 8 

“Sniffs,” breathing by, 88 
Solar plexus, 104 
Solomon, what he said, 227 
Soul, location, 29 
Special needs, 221 
Spinal massage, 109 
Splanchnic pool, 79, 173 
Splanchnic veins, 79; set Blood 
ptosis 

Splints, corsets are, 151 
Spray tube for bath, 254 



302 


INDEX 


Stagnation, gastro-intestinal, 176; 

see Constipation 
Stand, head, 206 
Stand, knee, 207 

Standard tables of height, weight 
and age, 274, 275 

Star Gazer, 238; effects of, 20; 
Chapter IV, Chapter XI, 192; 
workers’ set up, 238 
Static exercises, 69 
Step, swing, 183 
Stiff necks, 198 
Stories in bodies, 21 
Stretch, the, 237; analysis of, 66; 
like exercises, 69; original, 62; 
results of, 64; workers’ set up, 237 
Structure of health, 19 
Subcostal angle, 231, 235 
Sunday, prescription, 289 
“Swing, swing, touch,” 149 
Swing step, 183 

Sympathetic system in neck, 195I 
Syphilis, effect on arteries, 172 

Tables, age, height, weight, 274, 
275; overweight, 277, 278 
Tennis, before breakfast, 179 
Test exercises, personal record, 262 
Testing, self, 257 

Tests, abdominal mobility, 90; 
back wall, 210; bath benefit, 255; 
blood ptosis, 186, 263-293; chest 
abdominal ratio, 91; chest mobil¬ 
ity, 90; of front wall, 210; posture, 
210; pulse recovery, 187, 265; 
Rectus abdominis, 96; vitality, 185 
Tests, physiological, in health ex¬ 
amination, 285 

Third exercise, Chapter IV, Chapter 
VII, 93 

Thoracic aspiration, 78 
Tickle-toe exercise, 148 


Tobacco, effects on arteries, 172 
Toe touching, 106 
Tonic for circulation, 81; gastro-in- 
testinal, 176 

Touchback, 107 (test of Rectus) 
Training the arteries, 172; for chil¬ 
dren, 247; for life, 167; the heart, 
171; internal organs, 177; the 
veins, 173 
Transversalis, 150 
Triad, knee raising, 100 
Triad, leg raising, 103 
Trunk bending, 160 
Trunk circling, workers’ set up, 238 
Tiunk twisting exercise, 149 
Twist, scissor, 209 
Two minute drill, for the housewife, 
244 

Two minute set up, shop, 236 
Types of persons, in relation to 
exercise, 223 

Urinalysis in health examination, 285 
Uterine congestion, 243 

Vacation, 228 
Vacuum cleaner, 82 
Value of kicking, 97 
Varicose veins, 173 
Veins, educating the, 173 
Visceroptosis, 292; see Ptosis 
Vitality tests, 186 
Volley ball, effects of, 20 

Waist line exercises, 99; see Abdom¬ 
inal exercises 
Wake up, old method, 62 
Waking up, 35 

Walk, daily, 216; prescribed, 288 
Walking, effects of, 20 
Weak abdominal wall, exercise for, 
240 

Weak as a rabbit, 146 



INDEX 


303 


Weak necks, 198 

Weight, average, 269; best, 268; 
normal, 270; optimum, 269; 
standard, 277; tables, 274, 275 
Whirl, double, 163 
White collar job, 227 
Wife, friend, 241 
Will it pay, 41 
Will power, 10 
Winning the 100% life, 10 
Wise parents, evidence in child’s 
body, 245 


Woman executive program, 231 
Woman’s burdens, 235 
Woman, the successful, 232 
Woman worker, 234 
Work, 10; see Job; see Program 
Work out, 216; prescribed, 288 
Worker, woman, 234 
Workroom exercises, 236 
Wrestlers’ bridge, 203 
Wrist extension, use of, 71 

Yogi, culture of body, 123 































































































































































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